B-schools set to knock on SC’s door again
Institutes eye legal recourse after failingto convince the AICTEand HRD ministry to withdraw notification
New Delhi: Around 300 business schools have failed to convince the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and the human resources development (HRD) ministry to withdraw a 2010 notification mandating that admissions to these schools be done only on the basis of an AICTE-conducted entrance test.
These schools now have no option but to approach the Supreme Court, which had previously stayed the notification and allowed admissions for the batches of 2011-13, 2012-14, 2013-15, 2014-16 and 2015-17 through several judgements.
The notification affects schools such as XLRI, Jamshedpur, and Birla Institute of Management Technology (BIMTECH), Greater Noida, which offer the postgraduate diploma in management (PGDM) qualification and are seeking to retain their autonomy with regard to the admission process, curriculum and administration.
Officials from these schools met HRD minister Smriti Irani and AICTE officials in September and October, respectively, to draw their attention to the December 2010 notification.
“We requested them to withdraw the notification. Both the ministry and the AICTE authorities listened to us patiently... but we have not heard anything from them," said Harivansh Chaturvedi, director of BIMTECH. “The admission process will start from January and we are still uncertain and without a permanent solution."
But the AICTE seems to be in no mood to relent. “We cannot do anything on that notification," AICTE chairman Anil Sahasrabudhe said. “We have to follow certain rules and that notification issue is in court."
Chaturvedi said that the PGDM schools will seek a stay on that notification from the Supreme Court on 4 December.
“Without a stay on that notification, we cannot even start a new academic session. For the last four years, the trouble for PGDM schools has compounded. Instead of focusing on education, a lot of energy is getting diverted to legal issues," he said. “If the AICTE withdraws the notification, we will withdraw the case."
Chaturvedi, who is also the alternate president of the Education Promotion Society of India, a federation of private B-schools, said several top educationists have petitioned the HRD ministry, under which the AICTE functions, to withdraw the notification.
XLRI director E. Abraham, MDI, Gurgaon, acting director C.P. Shrimali and International Management Institute, Delhi, director Bakul Dholakia wrote to the HRD ministry on the issue in October. Dholakia is a former director of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.
These three academicians had sought “autonomous" status for these leading PGDM schools, saying that several of them are even better than the new IIMs.
These academicians believe that since the government is now getting ready to allow IIMs to grant degrees, such institutions too need more autonomy.
In their letter, they wrote: “Liberalization must not stop with business and industry. It must reach the field of higher education and more so the field of business education. It is essential for business education to be in lockstep with global trends and be on a par with the system of management education elsewhere in the world. Therefore, bureaucratic controls should be eschewed to the maximum with the emphasis shifting to facilitating rather than control".
Sahasrabudhe said that the AICTE has already given its response to the ministry, which now has to take the call. “Whether it’s PGDM schools or any other such institutions, they need to follow certain rules. The autonomy issue can only be addressed by a modification in the AICTE Act, which is not at present on the table," he said.
Shalini Sharma, head of the education wing at lobby group Confederation of Indian Industry, sounded a cautionary note.
“While some of the top PGDM schools are very good, any change in their status needs a change in the law. It’s not AICTE but the HRD ministry that has to take a call on it," she said.
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