AICTE will come out with a National Perspective Plan for technical education, by which the pattern and requirements of courses and seats would be decided by collecting data from states, according to an official spokesperson on May 11.
As there were problems in sanctioning new engineering colleges and closing of some colleges following less demand for courses and vacancies, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has sent a circular to state governments to send their perspective plans, so that a national plan could be brought out, S S Mantha chairman AICTE said.
Stating that only Maharashtra has responded, “to some extent”, Mantha said he was expecting other states to respond at least in another six months, so that a national plan could be brought out three months thereafter.
This would also help AICTE sanction colleges and courses according to the needs of the region and states, so that there would not be any closure of colleges and wastage of sanctioned courses, said Mantha who was in Chennai to attend the graduation day of PPG Institute of Technology and PPG Business School.
On President Pranab Mukherjee’s observation on standards of higher education, the official said AICTE was taking concrete steps to improve the quality of education and in another two to three years, the standards would definitely improve.
At a convocation at the Babsaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University in Lucknow on May 10, Mukherjee had emphasised the need for bringing several far-reaching changes in the education system and for improving the quality of higher learning.
A new scheme has been introduced by which PhD aspirants would be given a monthly scholarship of Rs 16,000 in the first year and Rs 18,000 in the second and third years, with a maximum of four years. Under this, students can pursue research in labs, be it National Laboratories, Engineering and Industry related or any other lab.
AICTE has also set up 100 Quality Improvement Centres with an aim to help students during their research. It was also decided to have National Level Aptitude Phd test for students, so that they could be allotted topics as per their aptitude and would be given rank and merit, he said.
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