Graded Autonomy: AICTE notifies policy for standalone institutions

NEW DELHI: The All India Council for Technical Education has finally notified its policy for granting “graded autonomy” to standalone institutions. These institutions are not affiliated to universities but offer a range of open and distance learning and postgraduate diploma and certificate programmes. These will also include the large number of private standalone business schools.

The "All India Council for Technical Education [Categorisation of Standalone Institutions (SIs) for Grant of Graded Autonomy] Guidelines 2019" were notified on October 10. They replace a earlier policy issued in January which, according AICTE member secretary, Rajive Kumar, “could not be implemented as there was no clarity on how to do it”. The council is the top regulator for technical education in the country.

Similar to the University Grants Commission’s 2018 policy, AICTE's enables the grading of each institution into one of three categories according to its place in international and domestic ranking and accreditation systems. The top two categories will enjoy some measure of autonomy from the council’s regulatory oversight.

“If there are eight programmes, and only one has a high ranking, do we grant them autonomy or not?” asked Kumar rhetorically. “These were the questions that came up and that policy was not implemented. The new one makes things clearer.”

Category I

According to the policy, for an institute running up to three courses to be placed in Category I, all three courses must be accredited by the government’s National Board of Accreditation with a score of 75 percent (750 out of 1,000) or more.

For an institute running four courses, three must have scored 75 percent and for an institute running five or more, the minimum number of courses with a 75 percent score should be two less than that total number of courses. For example, an institution running eight courses must have at least six that have scored 75 percent or above in the NBA to be eligible for a Category-I grade.

Alternatively, an institute must be placed in the top 100 in an international ranking system to be considered.

In the January iteration of the policy, the number of courses was not specified and the top 500 ranks in international ranking frameworks would be considered.

Relaxations for Category I

Institutions placed in Category I will enjoy the highest degree of autonomy. “They shall be eligible for grants and no inspections by the AICTE shall be required for the same,” says the notification. They can start new courses without approval; they may start skill courses; they open research parks, incubation centres or institute society linkage centres, provided it’s in “self-financing mode, either on its own or in partnership with private partners”. They may recruit foreign faculty and admit foreign students and decide on their salaries and fee independently.

These institutions shall be “exempted from annual monitoring of their institutions and learning resource centre(s)” by the AICTE, “except when there is substantive evidence of their not meeting basic minimum criteria or of irregularities or malpractices”. However, in case any external review is required by a statute or an executive order, “it would be sufficient that the institution sends a report to the AICTE in a prescribed review format”.

A large number of business schools offering post graduate diplomas in management – colloquially called “PGDM institutions” – will benefit from the policy, said H Chaturvedi, president, Educational Promotion Society of India, a body of 450 PGDM institutions. The policy translated into “eleven major concession from the AICTE’s regulatory control” for Category-I institutions, he said in a statement.

In an even earlier version of the policy, the council had provided for a committee to examine the applications for “graded autonomy”. However, the EPSI opposed that and demanded that PGDM institutions be granted autonomy solely on the basis of ranks and accreditation scores, Chaturvedi told Careers360. The University Grants Commission’s policy, however, provides for the scrutiny of such applications by the Commission.

Category II

For institutions to be placed in Category II, the requirements on the minimum number of accredited courses remain the same as those for Category I, but the minimum score each must earn is 67.5 percent or more. In the January version, the minimum NBA score required for Category-II-status, was 70 percent.

Category-II institutions will be allowed to launch new courses without approval as well but they should not number more than the total number of NBA-accredited courses they are already running. Plus, they will be subject to all other AICTE norms and standards. They will still need AICTE's go-ahead to start a fellowship programme. Category-II institutions can also recruit teachers and admit students independently. However, they will have to mandatorily disclose certain types of information to the AICTE. “Standalone institutions will adopt the AICTE Model Governance Structure and maintain utmost transparency in its functioning,” says the notification. “All information relating to management, finance, tuition and other fees, data relating to intake/enrolment/placement and faculty shall be provided to AICTE as per its norms.”

“Category II PGDM institutions will be given six major relaxations,” says Chaturvedi’s statement.

Institutions that do not fall within the first two categories will be in the third category and for them nothing changes till they are able to improve their scores. The status of institutions in Categories I and II will be reviewed every five years.