5% Engg seats must for poor

Updated on: Monday, January 03, 2011

Doing away with the voluntary tuition fee waiver scheme of the AICTE for ten per cent students,the new norm makes it mandatory for each and every institute to keep five per cent seats for economically backward sections.In view of the space crunch, it has been decided that there will be only two classifications rural and other areas. While an institute in rural area will have to be housed in ten acres, in other areas it can be two and a half acres. Floor space index and floor area ratio will be considered and engineering institutions will be allowed vertical expansion where management programmes will be allowed.

Acknowledging the demand of many institutes to increase the capacity, AICTE has allowed an increase in seats from 40 to 60 to provide for more seats and optimization of resources. Now,institutes will be allowed to have more than one engineering/ architecture/ pharmacy/ management/ hotel management and catering technology institutes that can be integrated into a single campus so that resources can be shared and optimized. The fixed deposit receipt paid by institutes to AICTE will now be converted into money deposit as it has come to light that earlier FDRs were encashed without the AICTEs knowledge. Also, all institutions having more than one batch shall be eligible to get two courses/ programmes on self-disclosure if facilities and infrastructure are available.

"Emphasizing the need for social responsibility, institutions have been allowed to have evening courses for skill development based on their expertise area. This will benefit the community around the institutions", Sibal said. Private institutions have also been allowed to have stand-alone postgraduate programmes. Till now, it was allowed only if an undergraduate course existed. Also, Indian degrees can be given in campuses of Indian institutions abroad subject to local laws.It has also been decided that all postgraduate management courses shall not be of less than two years duration. And, the ones that are more than a year and less than two years shall be called postgraduate certificate in management.

5% Engg seats must for poor

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