Institutions Functioning out of Temporary Locations to be Shut Down By Mar 31.
Ahead of the admission season, AICTE has dropped a bombshell — close down all B-schools and engineering colleges that are functioning out of rented buildings or sheds.
The apex body which regulates technical and management education institutes in the country has asked all institutions that are functioning on temporary location to shut down by March 31 if they do not shift to approved permanent site with full facilities. Such institutes will not be permitted to offer courses for the academic year 2007-08.
It will also be mandatory for colleges to have at least 50% built-up area to admit students. If the shortfall is more then 50%, then the institute will be placed under no-admission category In colleges where the shortfall is between 25-50%, the intake will be cut by 50%.
"The requirements of built up area per student is 11.7 sqm. The built up area for the approved intake must be provided before the commencement of the next academic session," said and AICTE circular that was sent to colleges.
The apex body has come out with fresh guidelines for institutes, which were given conditional approval last year. After the apex body introduced round-the-year approval scheme, several engineering and management institutes were given conditional approval though they had certain deficiencies in staff and infrastructure.
"Several colleges have been given conditional approval with a deadline to overcome the deficiencies. Majority of the colleges in Karnataka and Kerala have met the norms. We will not give permission to colleges to admit students if they show no progress," D S Bagri, AICTE regional officer (Southwestern region) told.
There are 1,518 engineering colleges across the country with an intake of 5, 69, 285 students and 1,147 institutes offering MBA/PGDM admitting over 94,000 students. Andhra Pradesh alone has 281 colleges followed by Tamil Nadu with 247 colleges and Maharashtra with 170 colleges. In Karnataka there are 126 AICTE-approved engineering colleges that admit over 55,000 students. As per the revised guidelines, it will be mandatory for all institutes to appoint qualified directors/principals by June 30 to get extension.
Source: The Times of India