Virtual tours of engineering colleges for aspirants as AICTE takes college approval process online

Engineering aspirants aiming at institutes in the country will soon have the advantage of getting a virtual tour of the institute on their respective websites

Engineering aspirants aiming at institutes in the country will soon have the advantage of getting a virtual tour of the institute on their respective websites. While this process is common with universities abroad, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has decided to give students in the country the same feature.

HT Image

A year after approving 171 new professional institutes online due to Covid-19 restrictions, AICTE has now decided to take the process to virtual mode only. The decision comes after several stakeholders felt the online mode brought better accountability and transparency to the entire process.

“While in 2020, the approval process had to be conducted online due to travel restrictions imposed by the pandemic, we have received very positive feedback from all stakeholders in the past one year. Hence, we decided to permanently do away with physical visits and paperwork involved in the institute approval process,” said Anil Sahasrabudhe, chairman, AICTE.

Along with new institutes, existing institutes also have to apply for renewal of their affiliation with AICTE every year. As part of the process, colleges submit detailed paperwork highlighting the courses they offer, staff and infrastructure available and the fees they plan to charge students. Once the paperwork is approved, AICTE sends a specially-appointed local inquiry committee to visit the institute and check the facilities as described by the institute in their form.

As part of the virtual process now, colleges will be expected to submit all necessary documents in soft copy to AICTE, and the council then participates in a virtual tour of the institute before the final approval. “Time and again AICTE has received complaints against senior members of local inquiry committees demanding bribes at the time of physical visits. Virtual tours should help cut out third-party arrangements and bring more transparency to this process,” said principal of an engineering institute in Pune.

AICTE approved 171 new institutes in the 2020-21 academic year, marking a 138% drop compared to last year when it gave approvals to over 945 institutes across professional courses. Experts say the lower number is due to the blanket ban on private engineering and pharmacy institutes across the country, despite a year-on-year seat vacancy of up to 50%.

According to AICTE, almost 70% institutes which were approved this year are government-run, whereas in the past few years, private institutes have dominated engineering and pharmacy sectors.

Every year, AICTE starts accepting approval applications for new as well as existing institutes by November. However, this year applications were accepted February onwards. The governing authority now has the permission from the Supreme Court to complete the approval process till June-end. “Online applications are helping us go paperless and at the same time, making the otherwise cumbersome process easier for the institutes as well as for us. The advantage of virtual tours is that the institute can then upload the same video on their website, making it convenient for students to check the institute before choosing to apply for a seat,” added Sahasrabuddhe.

This year, AICTE has also introduced the concept of digital signatures on online application forms, making it clear that no application will be accepted without the validated digital signature of the head of the institute or management governing the institute. “This process brings better accountability because every year institutes would blame their juniors for errors in the application process, but henceforth we will hold the heads of the institute accountable for errors, if any,” added Sahasrabuddhe.