New AICTE norms disappoint private colleges

Punjab Technical University,the only technical university in the state,has welcomed the new set of norms fixed by the All India Council for Technical Education for setting up new institutions,but private colleges in the state are a disappointed lot.

Punjab Technical University (PTU) ,the only technical university in the state,has welcomed the new set of norms fixed by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) for setting up new institutions,but private colleges in the state are a disappointed lot.

Dr J S Dhaliwal,president of the Punjab Unaided Technical Education Association (PUTIA),said the processing fees being charged by AICTE from colleges had substantially increased but on the other hand tuition fees had not been increased for the last 10 years. He said more than 90 per cent institutes in Punjab were private and self-financed institutes. The increase in processing fees will impact students,too,because the burden will be ultimately passed on to students.

He said they would write to the AICTE and meet its chairman with a request to reconsider the new norms. According to the new set of norms,the fixed deposit receipt (FDR) has been hiked to Rs 90 lakh from Rs 35 lakh for technical collages. For MBA,pharma and other colleges,the FDR has increased from Rs 15 lakh to Rs 35 lakh.

With this increase,Dr Anshu Kataria,chairman,Aryans Group of Colleges (AGC),Chandigarh,said,the institutes were not finding it easy to start any new project or expansion of the existing projects. For the last eight to ten years,Dr Dhaliwal said,AICTE norms regarding land had not changed,i.e. an institute in rural area will have to be spread over 10 acres,but on the other hand land prices have encreased manifold. No relaxation was given in these norms considering the hike in land prices. The AICTE had reduced such limit from 5 acres to 2.5 acres in big cities.

The charges to be paid by polytechnic colleges have increased from Rs 15 lakh to Rs 50 lakh. Also,there is a high jump in the fees to be paid by an institution to start a new project from less than Rs 1 lakh to Rs 7.5 lakh.

Appreciating the step taken by the AICTE to allow the corporate sector to start educational institutes,PTU Vice-Chancellor Dr Rajneesh Arora said the entry of corporates into the education sector would lead to healthy competition in this field and also enhance the quality of education to be imparted to students in remote areas of the state. He also supported the increase in processing charges and said this would ensure only the competent entered this field.

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