AICTE stricture on mandatory annual subscription of national and international e-journal evokes mixed response

Updated on: Tuesday, November 20, 2012

The recent guidelines of All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) for linking next academic year approval with mandatory annual subscription of national and international e-journal has not gone down well with all the city-based engineering colleges. Some believe that it is a good step for students as well the faculty while few say it is a good step only for institutions having residential campuses.

M D Agarwal, director, Acropolis Institute of Technology and Research, said, "In residential institutes students stay round-the-clock and come to library often. So, it is a good idea to subscribe such journals for them. However, in most of the institutes students and faculty move back to their homes after finishing lectures. They are engaged and they hardly get time to read huge journals." Though it is important to have e-journals in colleges, spending Rs 12-15 lakh annually may not be a good idea for all the colleges, he added.According to the handbook of AICTE, which has pledged for quality education to all slogan for 2013-'14, the council will play as a regulator and will further gear up to weed out the institutions not fulfilling the norms and standards.

According to the guidelines, an expert committee will verify the actual availability of equipment, computers, software, internet, printers, book titles, book volumes, subscription of national and international e-journals. "Mere presentation of purchase orders or payment records for subscription, without actual availability, shall not be considered," it says.

However, some institutes favoured the new guidelines of the council stating that this will increase research output from the colleges and improve quality of engineers passing out from institutes. P K Chande, director, Truba College of Engineering, said, "AICTE is a statutory body. They have group of experts who research things and then give directive to the colleges. Subscribing e-journals in colleges will certainly help students to enhance their knowledge and churn out better engineers." Dinesh Patel, executive director of Patel Group of Institutions, too supported the new norm. He said, "The move may not go well with the institutes having large number of vacant seats. It is their problem, but I believe all institutes should subscribe e-journals for providing quality education."

AICTE has warned action against those failing to meet requirements. "Any failure in meeting requirements will attract either suspension of approval for supernumerary seats, if any for an academic year, no admission status in one or more courses for an academic year, withdrawal of approval programme or course and withdrawal of approval of the institution," the handbook says.

AICTE stricture on mandatory annual subscription of national and international e-journal evokes mixed response

More Education news