New Delhi: The waiting room at the head office of the All India Council of Technical Education, or AICTE, is familiar territory for B.N. Mishra, director of the Maharaja Agrasen Institute of Technology in New Delhi.
In the line of fire: The HRD ministry had suspended AICTE chairman R.A. Yadav after CBI filed charges of bribery against him. Ramesh Pathania / Mint
“I have been here many times,” Mishra says, adjusting a pile of files on his lap as he and several others await their turns for appointments. “Files here move very slowly.”
AICTE licenses the launch of all engineering, management and other technical courses offered by private colleges in the country. For colleges, it is also the place to go for approval of any increase in seats, additional courses and yearly licence renewals.
“This doesn’t end here. Each time one needs to start a course, or construct a building, one needs to start all over again,” says Mishra, whose institute received an approval for the introduction of a new course four years after applying to the regulator.
The alleged regulatory delays, red tape, restrictive policies, opaque functioning—and even bribery—at AICTE underscore the need for reform of the educational system that is being considered by the ministry of human resource development (HRD) under Kapil Sibal.
The government plans to scrap AICTE and the University Grants Commission, the top two regulators of higher education, in line with the recommendations of the the advisory body to the Prime Minister, Mint had reported on 9 June.
In July, the HRD ministry, which oversees education, suspended AICTE chairman R.A. Yadav after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed charges against him and three other senior officials for allegedly receiving Rs5 lakh as bribe.
After Maharaja Agrasen Institute sought approval for an electrical engineering course in collaboration with Auburn University of the US, in 2004, the sanction came last year, and so late in the day that the institute couldn’t even advertise it properly.
“It was too late to attract enough students. The approval came in September. That is actually the time academic sessions across most educational institutes begin,” Mishra says.
Last year, his institute could admit 19 students against a sanctioned strength of 120. Mishra fears it will be the same story this year, too. The institute’s application for renewal of the approval is still gathering dust with the regulator.
The tight regulatory controls have led to a web of corruption, from inspection teams demanding cash from colleges to brokers approaching colleges to set up “meetings” with senior officials where money changes hands, institutes have complained in the past.
Most agree that the council needs a revamp and greater involvement of stakeholders in education to cut down on procedural delays and for faster processing of applications.