Colleges should become part of the All India Council for Technical Education to benefit from its technical expertise, said its chairman T.G. Sitharam.
At a workshop for stakeholders in the city on Thursday, Mr. Sitharam said the institutions would benefit multi-fold, including ensuring students internship, scholarship and standardised world-class curriculum, he explained. The workshop was held to explain why AICTE mandated that all colleges offering BBA and BCA programmes should register with it.
Mr. Sitharam explained that the Council was only bringing under its purview BBA and BCA courses as it already oversees MCA and MBA programmes.
“We want to give the benefits of AICTE’s technical expertise to colleges running BBA and BCA – there are advantages – such as teaching and learning; we will give you standard curriculum prepared by world class faculty and industry experts. We will give scholarship; your bandwidth will expand. AICTE disburses around ₹200 crore as scholarship. We will also train your faculty,” he said.
In return, the Council expected the institutions to ensure appointment of qualified teachers who upgrade their skills in emerging technologies, he added. He urged colleges to register for internship on the AICTE portal and called on teachers to guide the students “towards innovation and entrepreneurship and be job creators.”
The council planned to set up 12 innovation centres in the country, including in Chennai to handle technology transfer from engineering colleges affiliated to the Council.
The Approval Process Handbook 2024-25 which delineates the rules was explained. Some rules had been relaxed for institutions that had a track record of 80% enrolment for five years, accreditation for its courses from NBA and ranking in NIRF. The Council has also introduced professor in practice programme, similar to the University Grants Commission. Colleges with excellent performance will be allowed to start off campus centres as well. Guidelines regarding the new changes including the BBA and BCA rules will be released shortly, officials said.
Colleges will not need separate approvals for vocational or skill development courses. Any college with AICTE approval by default can run vocational courses relating to branches they are operating in their institutions, the APH has said.
Institutions that offer MCA and MBA online are permitted to offer BCA and BBA as online learning and online distance learning courses.