Retd IIT, NIT profs to mentor engg colleges

In a bid to improve the standard of education in the affiliated institutes, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has decided to rope in retired professors from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and National Institutes of Technology (NIT) as mentors.

The decision was taken in a meeting chaired by Anil Sahasrabudhe, chairman, AICTE, recently.

“These mentor-professors will be in a better position to help the institutions in improving the quality of education. The main intention of this is to stop closing down of colleges and to improve the standard of education in the existing colleges,” a senior official from AICTE told DH.

The move is aimed at helping the colleges, which are not able to find the mentor-institutes in their neighbourhood.

“This is an addition to Margadarshan scheme. Here the mentor-professors will be required to assist the mentee-institutes in training teachers, outcome-based education (OBE), developing practical classes such as laboratory among others,” AICTE chairman Anil Sahasrabudhe told DH.

He added since 85% of the technical institutes are unaccredited, this move will benefit the institutes to get at least half of their education programs accredited by the national board of accreditation (NBA) to maintain a good standard of education.

The AICTE, under the ‘Margadarshan’ programme launched, last year, had proposed the premier institutes to lend their helping hands to the institutes that were faring poorly.

Making such clusters will be helpful as the mentor-colleges can share resources with mentee-institutions and thereby help enhance the quality of education.