The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has announced a new process to fast-track the approval process for new colleges and universities by holding virtual inspections. The scrutiny of documents has started and a form is now available online for application.

This year due to the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, there has been a delay in releasing the approval process handbook that is usually done by December for extension of approval – starting new courses and new technical institutions. The approval process includes visits to new institutes and often a surprise visits to existing ones.

The council chairman Anil Sahasrabuddhe said, “AICTE has devised online scrutiny of documents and online institute inspections, using Microsoft Team… without physical visits, for giving approvals to new colleges. I personally think this new method is better because it saves time. The institutes would have to show us their space, building and infrastructure virtually, which would be recorded. Also there is more transparency since we can conduct surprise inspections at any time and verify if what was claimed in terms of infrastructure and otherwise is indeed available”.

Source: Hindustan Times