One in 3 tech institutes submitted false data for AICTE approval

REGULATOR CONDUCTED SURPRISE INSPECTION AT 311 INSTITUTES AND MAJOR DISCREPANCIES WERE FOUND IN 89 OF THEM, WHICH WERE GIVEN APPROVAL BY THE AICTE LAST YEAR

One-third of engineering and technical institutes were caught submitting fraudulent data related to number of staff, students, laboratories, infrastructure to get approval from the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), sources said.

According to officials, the regulator conducted surprise inspection at 311 institutes and major discrepancies were found in 89 of them which were given approval by the AICTE last year. Sources said major penalty will be imposed on these institutions and in many cases it will lead to its closure too.

Last year, approximately 10,000 institutes, including polytechnics, were granted approval by AICTE. “The council decided to conduct surprise inspections. Expert visits were also conducted,” said a senior official. The issue was taken up in the Council meeting held last week and it was found that most institutes have inflated the faculty figures to get approval. In a few cases, laboratories are present only on papers.

Recently, AICTE had posted information on its website about 279 fake technical institutes and Delhi had emerged as the fake capital with 66 colleges — the highest for any state in India.

These institutes were running courses without the regulator’s permission. Simply put, these schools don’t have the authority to grant degrees. Education certificates issued by such colleges are nothing but a piece of paper.

“Quality is becoming a major issue with technical institutes. Therefore, surprise inspections were carried out. Strict action will be taken against these institutes and in future too AICTE will go harsh on those found submitting fraudulent data to get approvals,” said a senior official.

Quality of engineering institutes, which produces over seven lakh students annually has become a major concern for the HRD ministry as only 40% of them get job placements.

“The low employability is attributed as much to the lack of requisite skills as well as to the falling demand from the industry. A number of students take admission in the institutes and are unable to learn new skills due to poor standards of teaching and lack of infrastructure too. For instance, many of these institutes don’t even have a proper laboratory. The surprise inspection helped us take stock of that and similar inspections will become the norm to ensure quality is not compromised,” said a senior HRD official.