AICTE to cut fee, bring uniformity in curriculum

LUCKNOW: Here is a piece of good news for those aspiring for engineering education. The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has decided to slash fees for technical institutions across the country, and bring a uniformity in the fee structure, said AICTE vice-chairman MP Poonia. Justice Krishna committee which is working on fee fixation is to submit its report in October. The new fee structure will be implemented from next academic session.There are 10300 technical institutions in the country. UP alone is home to around 1,000 colleges.
Speaking to reporters at APJ Abdul Kalam Technical University, Poonia said the high cost is one of the reasons for admissions plunging in technical institutions every year. Cost should be reduced to accomodate more students in colleges and universities. Currently, only 25 out of 100 students who pass class XII are admitted in higher learning institutions. In USA, 87 students out of 100 make it to colleges while in Japan, and UK, the number is around 70. Even in countries like Malaysia and China, 50 and 40 students out of 100 join higher education, respectively.
Low admissions, said Poonia reflect lack of quality teachers. “Teachers might be qualified but they are incompetent to teach, and lack dedication, and sincerity. In turn, academic results are poor,’’ Poonia said. Giving statistics, Poonia said there are 37 lakh seats approved by AICTE. On this, 20 lakh admissions take place. Of this, only 13 lakh students clear the course and get degrees. And only 6.5 lakh get jobs. To improve the quality of teachers, AICTE has made mandatory for MTech students to undertake one year internship in an industry environment. Besides, like Bachelor of Education is compulsory for primary school teachers, we will also provide hands-on training to teachers before they join technical institutions.
Poonia said, this year AICTE has closed down 150 institutes, majorly management and engineering, on their request following shortage of students and granted affiliation to 200 institutes which are mostly pharmacy and government-run. To check this, AICTE has decided to shut shops which fail to attract 30% of students in a time span of five years, starting from 2017-18. “Institutions where not even 30% admissions take place fail to deliver, and should be closed down.,’’ he said.
A model curriculum for engineering courses to bring in uniformity has also been prepared by academics. Under this, 70% of the course content is common across the states, while 30% has been left on the states. To reduce academic pressure on students, AICTE has also reduced credits - from earlier 200 to now 160- required to complete engineering. These, said Poonia will be implemented from next academic session, since this year, classes have already begun.
In addition, students have been asked to pursue 20% of their course through Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) via SWAYAM platform. So, if an engineering student studies 40 papers over a period of four years, then he should pursue 8 papers online. This means, one paper every semester. Lectures and videos of IIT professors, and discussion forums are already made available on SWAYAM. To promote Hindi language, AICTE, said Poonia is also about to introduce books in Hindi in engineering colleges.