All India Council for TechnicalEducation (AICTE) has introduced new regulations and new norms through their AICTE Process Hand Book 2011-12. The new regulations are stated and hoped to be with the aim of weeding out corruption and introducing greater transparency in the technical education system in the country. But,the people who are keen followers of regulatory mechanism for the past decade, after looking at the changes made in AICTE Process Hand Book 2011-12, find this to be another change made for the ‘sake of change’ and definitely an another arbitrary and whimsical attempt made by the regulators in the name of streamlining the technical and professional education. On looking at the changes one has an apprehension that the new regulations will create further ripples in the turbulent administration by the regulators in the country. It appears to have been done without going deep in to the problems engulfing the technical and professional education system of the country.

The doubts expressed by several persons,clarifications sought by the managements of the private institutions and the Madras High Courts’ stay indicate that there are still many loop holes in the guidelines/ regulations formulated for implementation from academic year 2011-12. It is the feeling of many that the new regulations need to be studied further. The regulators need to work with open mind taking all the concerned into confidence and trust instead of rushing for making changes by the subjective opinion of few individuals in power whether they be in MHRD or in the AICTE. The decisions need to be based on the critical study involving the experienced experts who toiled their professional lives for the cause of the education instead of making it based on the views of the sycophants who are close to the power centre/ (s) of the decision making bodies. Few of the issues that are of concern to the managements and the  administration are discussed here, with an aim to open up the minds of the policy makers in incorporating the changes without further damaging the system.

Focus on Change: There is a need requirement for Change that benefits the Students and the education process itself for the wellbeing of the society across the entire globe necessitating the policies and their implementation strategies to be fully transparent and accountable. Change is always welcome though it is painful. If the system gets ready with the involvement of all the stake holders with real transparency, trust and commitment the change/(es) made will be extremely pleasant for every one and produce successful results.

The impression one gets after making a study of the new regulations is that AICTE has ‘not changed’ in its outlook and has not come out of the ‘control’ phobia still with suspicion on the people running the institutions.According to AICTE Chairman (acting) Prof. S.S. Mantha the framework of the new regulations for approval of technical institutions is with an aim to reform technical education in the country. This, according to him, will weed out corruption in the system, ushering in greater transparency which is beneficial for the students based on the premise that the economic progress of a country is ‘strongly linked to quality education with values for all’.At a meeting held recently with the managements of the institutions with regard to the implementation of new regulations, Prof.Mantha said ‘Don’t come to Delhi at all’. He shared his concern that every year, there is a mela, wherein people march in procession to Delhi for getting approvals and the representatives of managements of private institutions spend lakhs of rupees trying all kinds of tricks with the AICTE, which is now, ‘not required’. Further, he advised the managements not to send third party or middlemen to deal with the highest technical body. ‘You are an institution. Interact with us directly’ He said. Middlemen are a problem to both the AICTE and the private institutions.If the managements desire to interact with AICTE’s regional offices, it will be better to use the services of learned professors instead of using the channel of middlemen. The focused change, according to him, in the new process of granting approvals are making the system web-enabled bringing in; the speed of communication with transparency in the process. He requested the managements to maintain certain decorum in maintaining principles to prevent corruption and to impart quality education.The experience of the nation cautions everybody in the system not to take the words of the Chairman with trust unless and until they
experience positive implementation of the regulations with commitment and without corruption. This word of caution is based on the experience we had with the moral preachings/utterances made by the former Chairman of Medical Council of India, Prof. Ketan Desai. Did he not talk many sweet and impressive words while administering the MCI before he was trapped in the corruption network? We need to be very cautious with the people who preach more on the principles and integrity.

Highlights Of The New Regulations: For setting up new institutions, considering the education as a non-profit venture and the educational institutions are not the profit making bodies in rendering their services to the society, the regulations are stated to have been worked out on the assumption that the money flow in the institutions will be circulated within the institution and exclusively for its development. Following are some of the changes made in the new regulations.

For Engineering Courses:  • Adopting e-governance making the processing system web enabled with correct information updated on day to day basis. All technical institutions will have to upload information of director/ principal and faculty members on the web portal of the council and update
information from time to time.
• There are only two categories of institutions— rural and urban. For rural areas, the land requirement will be 10 acres and for Urban and other areas it will be 2.5 acres.
* In urban areas, the council will allow expansion on a FSI basis in accordance with the developmental rules of the respective city.
• The institution that has no qualified principal/director for a period of more than 18 months will be placed under ‘no admission’ status.
• Institutions not maintaining prescribed faculty, student ratio for more than 18 months or not adhering to pay scales and or qualifications prescribed for teaching staff will be liable to suspension of approval for supernumerary seats, no admission status in respective courses, withdrawal of approval of the respective course or withdrawal of approval of the institution itself.
• There will be a penalty and punishment up to withdrawal of approval of an institution failing to provide basic infrastructure like; books, journals, Internet, software, laboratory and library facilities etc.
• Social responsibility will be mandatory for technical institutions from 2011-2012 with the addition of new branches and courses with an approach of; ‘Do something to the people.’
• As part of social responsibility, and in a bid to pull out engineering colleges from the red, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has worked out a proposal along with the Government of India on starting skill-based programmes for youth under Community Development Programme. According to which technical institutions will have to impart skillbased knowledge for 400 hours every year to the students from underprivileged communities
in the neighbourhood of the colleges by way of running skill development / Vocational courses during the second shift between 5pm to 8pm.
There could be batches in the three-hour slot with common facilities like the laboratory and library in both the shifts. Each institution can train a minimum of 80 students.

• In the first year, the institutions will have to volunteer to fulfill social obligations.
• Education being in the concurrent list of the Constitution the state/(s) should show more involvement in the technical education in controlling and providing guidance to the institution/(s) with regard to the courses to be offered in engineering institutions.
• Provision has been made for allowing engineering colleges on the campus of polytechnic or polytechnics on the campuses of engineering colleges provided there are enough facilities that meet the requirements like land and other facilities for the courses proposed.
• Students planning to join engineering courses have to score 50 per cent in the core subjects of Intermediate OR 12 Plus. However, five per cent relaxation is given to reserved categories.
• The fixed deposit receipt (FDR) to start an engineering College is raised from Rs.35 lakhs (Rs.3.5 million), to Rs.90 lakhs (Rs.9 million).
• AICTE has withdrawn the power from the state governments to approve polytechnics. The fee for starting polytechnics has been hiked from Rs.15 lakhs (Rs.1.5 million) to Rs.50 lakhs (Rs.5million).
• As per the new regulations, the processing fee of Rs. 7.5 lakhs is to be deposited in AICTE account for granting of approval for new engineering colleges.• An amount of Rs. 1, 50,000 for extension of Approval and another sum of Rs. 1, 50,000 for increase in take/variation in intake. Thus, the fee has been enhanced six times i.e. from Rs.50,000/ to Rs. 3, 00,000.
• A penal fee of RS. 2, 00,000 has to be paid for the delay in uploading the document. And for the second shift another sum of Rs. 5, 00,000 is to be deposited.
• As per the new regulations, the sanctioned intake is based on a basic figure of 300 per acre of Land for Mega/ Metro and other areas on the basis of F.S.I. Index.

For PGDM Courses:New Regulations have been introduced in PGDM courses being run by institutions based on the suggestions and feed back received from students and parents.

Following are some of the important changes.
• For Admission in to MBA/MCA, courses, one has to get 50 per cent in his/her degree examinations. Five per cent relaxation is given to reserved categories
• Education being in the concurrent list of the Constitution. The state governments will have to involve themselves in regulating the institutions running PDGM courses and should follow the new regulations being now introduced in various institutions across the country.
• Admission tests for admission to PGDM Programs shall be conducted by the respective State Governments through their Competent Authority designated for such purpose.
• The fees to be charged for the PGDM, PGDM (Executive) and PGCM Programs shall be approved by the fee fixation committee of respective state governments.
• The admission to PGDM, PGDM (Executive) and PGCM shall not start before 31st March of the Academic Year.

• For M.B.A, Pharmacy and other colleges, the FDR has been increased from Rs.15 lakhs (Rs.1.5 million) to Rs.35 lakhs (Rs.3.5 million).

Nod to Foreign Tech Schools:The AICTE has come up with a policy that allows foreign institutions to set up campuses anywhere in the country even before a law to allow their entry has been enacted. The new norms, which replace a 2003 policy, have come at a time when a proposed law on entry of foreign education providers is pending with a Parliamentary committee. Under the Foreign Educational Institutions (Regulation and Entry and Operations) Bill, 2010 — which the government introduced in the Lok Sabha in May 2010.The new provisions, however, pack stifferconditions that include;· The revised policy gives a roadmap for enhancing collaboration between Indian and foreign institutions in teaching and research.
· Foreign institutions can set up campuses after being registered as a society or trust or a Section 25 company.
· Societies, trusts and companies registered under Section 25 of the Company’s Act, 1956,are not-for-profit institutions. They can generate surplus from education activities but have to plough back the profit for the growth of the institution.
· After being registered as a society or trust or a Section 25 company, a foreign institution will have to submit a detailed proposal for approval from the AICTE to run a course. The institute needs to have the required land in its lawful possession before applying.
· Registration as a society or a trust is not possible for any foreign body unless cleared by the external affairs ministry and that will be a double check on preventing the bogus institutes getting into India as the ministry will be verifying their antecedents through its embassies and missions, the officials added.
* Foreign institutes have to be affiliated to an Indian university and offer degrees of the university they are affiliated to.

Some Critical Observations:
Looking at the situation and the reactions from various segments of the society concerned with the technical education it is evident that the regulators have not learnt any lessons from their past nor appearing to be having any inclination to learn to be proactive with a positive approach in administering the key area of technical education. The new regulations, instead of solving the problems of the institutions appear to have increased them widening the gap of understanding with the managements of the institutions running thetechnical schools. Little purpose is served through the sweet words expressed by the acting chairman of AICTE about the transparent
attempts made by them in the new regulations,as they are actually translucent blurred with several obsessions as expressed by the managements before the Madras High Court as; “regulations and norms are gravely prejudiced, more stringent, impracticable and unworkable”. The fact that the Honourable Court has stayed the implementation for eight weeks makes it clear that the regulations need further consideration, with saner thinking based on the current situation with an approach of better understanding the ground realities shunning away the ‘big brother/boss’ role being practiced by AICTE.

Some of the observations for further consideration are as follows:
· The AICTE while advocating the institutions to be working with ‘not for profit’ motto is in fact making itself work on commercial lines taking advantage of the regulatory role it is playing, as an Apex Body.
· Sri Kapil Sibal, Hon’ble Minister HRD, is appearing to be in haste in formulating several policies based on his subjective views and experiences with out consideration of ground realities based on Indian experiences. The differences in the AICTE’s regulations and the Bill before the parliament on Foreign Universities and the announcement made with regard to the enhancement of about 2,00,000 engineering seats are the examples of how haste he is.
* Several clarifications sought by the private managements of self financed colleges with a request to make amends are indicative of widening gap between the two important bodies of concern.
* With about 90% of the engineering colleges working under private managements due consideration with due respect should have been made taking them into confidence to benefit the technical education system before making any regulations.· The AICTE has to shield itself from the sycophants both within the bureaucratic administrative setup of the government and the elite developed colleges in the private sector.

· They need to work out the developmental strategies on the principle of equity and equality with a little bias for rural institutions.
· Earlier the fixed deposit receipt (FDR) to start an engineering College was Rs.35 lakhs (Rs.3.5 million) only , now it has been increased to Rs.90 lakhs (Rs.9 million) and for M.B.A, Pharmacy and other colleges, the FDR has been increased from Rs.15 lakhs (Rs.1.5 million) to Rs.35 lakhs (Rs.3.5million). With this increase, it is not easy for the management to start institutions or to undertake any expansion activities in right earnest.
· Abnormal hike in the processing fee (about six times) for approval is of great concern to every one. Though, AICTE states that it incurs a lot of expenditure on hiring experts for inspection and in conducting the approval process by four times from Rs. 2000 to Rs 8000 the hike is not justifiable for AICTE on the principle of ‘not for profit’ approach in the context that more than 90 per cent of institutes in almost all states being private and selffinanced the increase in processing fees will impact students as the burden will shift from the colleges to the students ultimately. This needs definite reconsideration.· The managements express the view that they
had to shell out Rs. 2.5 lakhs for closing a course for poor response and Rs. 7.5 lakhs for integration of courses and request that no charges should be sought for closure of courses and there should be a nation-wide discussion before implementing the proposal.
· AICTE’s decision to allow the corporates to start educational institutes is appreciable. The entry of corporates into education sector will lead to healthy competition in this field and also ensure quality education for students provided care is taken in preventing the unhealthy and unethical practices of corporates entering in academic world.

· There are doubts in the minds of many about the measures of transparency incorporated despite the implementation of e-governance in administration. Even though, the approval
process is being done online without any of the managements going to AICTE Delhi headquarters or regional centers, and the AICTE constituting an ethics committee for making surprise inspections relating to the approval process it will not be difficult for the experienced managements of the institutions to get away with all the deficiencies they have. This has to be reviewed carefully in the backdrop of events that have occurred earlier. Due to corruption of regulators violating the principles of ethics there is a feeling in many that the new regulations have made the things easier to people entering the field of education with dubious intentions. With the experience of ‘breach of trust’ both by managements of the institutions and the regulators in the AICTE  it appears that the decision of according approval purely based on the information/data furnished ‘online’ by the seekers of approval is blatantly a wrong step and will lead to several complications in future. Can we close the college once started? is the question to be addressed.· As per the existing sanctioned intake of 13,24,246, for 2010-11, there is a requirement of 1,71,711 Ph.Ds and 3,53,132 as M.Techs for four years strength to be appointed as faculty in the technical institutions. But, as per the report of the High Power Committee appointed by AICTE, under the chairmanship of Prof P Rama Rao there is a shortage of Ph.Ds and M.Techs for 2010-11. Hence, the request of the private college managements for the relaxation of norms with respect to the employment of: Assistant professors with First Class B.E/B.Tech,Associate Professors / Professors with M.Tech qualifications is worth consideration.
· In view of the shortage of Ph.D degree holders,the relaxation sought by the managements for the revision of age for Principals and Directors from 65 years to 70 years deserves consideration. This may be followed even in the employment of faculty at all levels maintaining the faculty, student ratio of 1:20 instead of the current 1:15 ratio until such time there is sufficient teaching community available in the country.
· Waiver of late fee clause for submission of online document/(s) in view of the difficulty that there are nearly 10,000 technical institutions, which are supposed to upload their data by February 28, 2011, which may result in hanging of the servers and that the people at the institutions are experiencing difficulties in accessing the template and uploading on-line application has to be relooked in to. · Colleges offering PG Diploma in Management (PGDM) courses have decided to approach the Supreme Court against the AICTE’s move to put a cap on the fee.According to the new AICTE rules introduced earlier this month, colleges which run autonomous PGDM courses will now have to slash their course fee from a whopping Rs 1 lakh to Rs 30,000 per annum. This needs review by the AICTE keeping consideration of the management’s view that the fee reduction by 70 per cent would be a squeeze on their resources and running the colleges would
become difficult. A realistic approach avoiding the issues to be taken to the courts will be highly beneficial to the academic world.
· The criteria of fixing 50 % as the qualifying marks in the qualifying examinations for admission into professional courses may receive strong opposition from the Governments and the student community even though very few of the students get affected by it. Officials feel that even if the government ignores the norm it might lead to legal hassles.
· Since the norm of 50% will affect few more thousands who take admission in the management quota the college managements have already opposed strongly and urged the government to bring a special order nullifying the AICTE norm. It will be wise if the regulations are modified to avoid sensitivities involved.

· Concern for the society making the mandatory conduct of skill based training programs in technical and vocational areas is a welcome feature. It is to be seen whether these programs are implemented effectively or will result in the misuse of funds from the Government. Taking the experience of Polytechnics in running Community Polytechnics, Centers for Development of Rural Technologies (CDRTs) very effective action plans need to be worked out with sincerity and commitment to make a success of these programs.Clarifications Required to be Addressed:
Certain clarifications required to be addressed by AICTE before implementing the new regulations.

They are: 1) As per the new regulations, the sanctioned intake is based on a basic figure of 300 per acre of Land for Mega/ Metro and other areas on the basis of F.S.I. Index. Thus, per two-and-a-half acres in Mega City and 10.0 acres in other areas, the total intake at first year level need to be 750. Is it so?
2) Since, the F.S.I. is the state subject, which varies from state-to-state and place-to-place,whether the Principle of F.S.I. would permit the equality at the intake level at Mega/Metro and other areas where the land requirement is 2.5 acres/ 10.0 acres respectively.
3) How many UG and PG courses with maximum intake are permissible for both un-accredited/accredited for existing and new engineering colleges for each and both of the shifts?
4) Owing to difficulty in getting the affidavit signed by the First Class Judicial Magistrate, will it be possible to accept Notary Certification.
5) To save internet operating time and heavy congestion of servers, the management wish to know whether it is sufficient to give details of first year admissions, lateral entries in the second year, transfers and detentions with class-wise strength instead of giving all the
names of the students including their personal entries along with their addresses.

Summing Up:
Engineering and Professional colleges are to be run on philanthropy with devotion and dedication of the managements as service providers to raise the human capital of the country. The massive expansion of the technical institutions has opened flood gates for the entry
of many entrepreneurs, most of whom are without experience in running academic institutions. The common objective of all the institutions is to make profit. The statement made by any one that the institutions are to be on ‘not for profit’ basis is highly Hippocratic.In fact, every management calculates its profits at the time of entry and subsequently before applying for a new course. The experience in the past suggest that the managements have Engineering Colleges in Andhra Pradesh).master minds and master plans to identify the loopholes in the norms and utilize them for making profit, if not excess profits, whenever the regulations are changed. The present New Regulations are not any exception. Imparting quality education should be the prime concern of every one. The regulations will have to be student friendly taking all the factors in to consideration like; growing unemployment, lack of employable and entrepreneurial skills,mushroom growth of colleges with poor standards, availability of many engineering seats, many students pursuing the course with out any interest due to parental pressure and the availability of several schemes like fee reimbursement and scholarships etc. As an institution is governed by three authorities,namely the AICTE which fixes Norms and standards, the affiliating University, which supervises and regulates the academic schedule and the State Government which fixes the tuition and other fees an integrated approach in formulating the regulations will be highly beneficial. The Regulations will have to be with open mind with developmental outlook based on ground realities involving all that are working in the system. Control and confrontationalapproach will have to be put an end to. The support, as sought by the AICTE Chairman, in the recent times will come only and only when he extends his hand of cooperation to all the stake holders with out any reservations and prejudices. (Author is a former Professor & Head, National Institute of Technical Teachers’ Training & Research, Extension Centre, Hyderabad and worked as Principal in Private Engineering Colleges in Andhra Pradesh).