AICTE to set off approvals for PGDM institutes from January 28

The All India Council for Technical education (AICTE) is expected to kick off the process of granting approval to institutes offering Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) programs from Tuesday, January 28, 2014. It will be a welcome move for business schools (B-schools), who will be able to seek approval regarding all issues relating to admissions in 2014 such as hike in intake, extension of approval, etc. on the portal of AICTE.

Moreover, approval requests to establish new PGDM as well as Diploma or Post Diploma institutes for the academic year 2014-15 can also be made to AICTE. This excludes institutes needing university affiliation.

The online application process for approvals for the academic session of 2014-15 is expected to continue till Saturday, February 15, 2014. Processing of these applications will be conducted from Saturday, February 1 to Monday, March 31, 2014.

It is important to note that as per a Supreme Court (SC) of India ruling made on Thursday, January 16, 2014, AICTE will continue to be the regulatory body for Indian B-schools which will enable them to remain autonomous. The SC ruling was made to address an application filed by the Education Promotion Society of India (EPSI) in December, 2013. EPSI acts as a representative of more than 500 higher education institutes in the country.

As per draft regulations released by the University Grants Commission (UGC) on Monday, December 23, 2013, institutes offering PGDM programs need to be placed under state-operated universities, a step which would have curbed their autonomy. B-schools from all over India came together in disagreement about technical education coming under the purview of UGC. The UGC, acting on a ruling by the SC of India, had drawn up draft guidelines to seek approval for new courses, establishing new technical institutes, closing shutters of old ones as well as other regulatory measures. The regulation by UGC stipulated guidelines for all technical institutes in the country which offer courses in management, engineering and technology, hotel management and catering technology, architecture as well as pharmacy. Thereafter, during a meeting held on Saturday, December 28, 2013, management experts had expressed concern about B-schools losing their autonomy and the resultant negative impact on business education. Hence, the SC was approached. A letter was sent to the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) seeking intervention to resolve the matter.

If the UGC recommendation was implemented, the stringent control would have impacted the B-schools’ performance in a negative way. However, the January ruling of SC in favor of the B-schools is expected to bring relief to the students and the institutes alike, stated EPSI officials.