"Only 12 to 13 percent institutes and universities have accreditation, our next aim is 100% accreditation"

AICTE Chairman Prof. Anil D. Sahsrabudhe speaks to Careers360’s Editor-in-Chief on the proactive steps taken to face the challenges in engineering education and the way ahead…

Q. If you look at India’s governance structure, technical education is predominantly under AICTE. Under the new regulatory architecture in the offing, what do you think will be the role of AICTE in the coming decade, especially in engineering education?
A. Well, there have been all kinds of media reports with regard to employability of graduates, seats remaining vacant, huge intake in the last decade and on. These are some of the many challenges and AICTE has taken stock of all of them. However, we have to look at these problems from a holistic perspective and deal with them asking ourselves questions such as what is the need of the hour for the country?  What should be done further?

To start with, we have the following steps:
1. The first step is a prospective plan for the future that encompasses, say the next one or two decades, looking at requirements in terms of technology, courses, what can be added and what can be modified to be on par with what is needed etc.
2. The second step is to look at increasing the employability levels as perceived by NASCOM, CII, FICCI for that matter all industry bodies, individual or collective. You see, the problem starts with the curriculum.
We have found that most universities have not updated their curriculum. AICTE has now asked for regular revision of the curriculum so that our students will now study what is up-to-date. This has been done with the help of industry inputs and now we have a committee that will have regular checks and changes made periodically, if and when needed.
Another area of concern is regarding trained teachers. We should have teachers who are able to teach the latest curriculum and this means they have to be trained and keep updated. So we are looking into this area and taking measures. Regular refresher courses will be conducted by the experts in the field for upskilling teachers’ knowledge in new domains and pedagogy.
3. The third area is student induction. Generally we see that at the start of any academic year new students come from all strata of society – rural, and urban, socially and economically weak or strong background, English medium or local language medium schools etc. There is little interaction between them, so the benefits of studying together in a university do not accrue. Students who come into such environments for the first time may lack confidence. If there is mingling and mixing, the communication channels get opened and everyone learns something from such interactions.
4. Industry internships have now been made mandatory. We have signed MoUs with some organizations to facilitate this. In essence, all students will be required to do an internship for maybe two months in the summers every year.
5. A good start-up culture of our own has to be developed and a policy has been initiated. 
6. Then there is SWAYAM platform where students can take up courses online from anytime, anywhere from the best faculty in India.
These are some of the possibilities in the right direction whereby all our 10 lakh plus students become graduating every year become proficient in their learning, become good engineers, and citizens and in the process become contributors not just to the nation but also globally.

Q. Some years back, AICTE had got into the Washington Accord. A set of institutions reached Tier-1 then. What is next on that?
A.  We found only a 12 to 13  percent institutes and universities have the accreditation. So our next aim is 100 percent accreditation for all the institutes and universities in the country. On our many visits to the various institutes, we found that many institutes are not up to the mark. So we need to uplift them, mentor and bring them to a level that they can at least apply for NBA. AICTE is committed to support the institutions such that in the next couple of years at least 60 percent will be accredited. Based on this, we will exert peer pressure so that the remaining ones come on board.
The first step in this direction is to get mandatory mention of accreditation by all institutes and universities on their own websites -- cases where the institutes have applied but couldn’t get through show a genuine gesture of trying to improve, which is a good thing. Then there may be others with partial accreditation. The point is that this will bring about much needed transparency. With it comes the desire and urgency to apply for accreditation.

Q. Will you link accreditation to the lightness of touch?
A. This is one mechanism and those institutions that have got all their programmes accredited must have gone through a rigorous process to achieve it. So they should be given autonomy.  We will give all such institutions autonomy whether they want it or not. Our wish is to give autonomy to all. Now the degree of autonomy may vary from institute to institute. Some may require autonomy to start new courses or increase in fees while others may require financial autonomy. Graded autonomy is what we are looking into so that all the institutions compete and raise the bar of education in the country.

Q. All national institutes need to be more active in raising the quality of institutes in their vicinity. Is AICTE doing something on these lines?
A. Yes, we have taken steps in this direction too. In fact, we have taken into consideration not just the IITs or NITs  but even those institutes that are affiliated and are very well known for quality to mentor at least 10 colleges in and around their vicinity.
If you look at the cycle that exists, you will see graduate students, at say IITs, move out after completion. Checking their PG students, it can be seen that these students are mostly from tier-2 institutions and then if you look further at the research or PhD levels, the students are from tier-3 colleges. So the advantage is accrued even by the mentor colleges and not just the mentees. To get good quality students from even the tier-2 or tier-3 colleges will be one benefit out of the mentoring. It’s a gain for all.

Q. There is a thinking that regulations must be split between approvals and beyond approvals. Is this an appropriate line of thinking?
A. Actually if approvals are given on the basis of not just facilities but the intent, this distinction is possible and clear. However, the reality is that approvals for the first time are given on the basis of the infrastructure. So at this juncture, it is not possible to know who is heading the institution, their methodologies in implementing vision and mission, the quality of the governance, who comprises the management body and how they function etc. Therefore, diverting them into two groups before and during approval may not be feasible. After say ten years of functioning, we shall have substantial data to decide about all these intangible factors that decide how a college actually is. Whether good governance exists, ethical practices are present, good quality faculty and finally good students will be known only after the institute functions for a certain period. You see good students draw good faculty and vice versa. That is one of the reasons why IITs have both good students and faculty.
We will be giving autonomy to those institutions that perform and are driven by student and industry needs and requirements as well as fulfilling the role envisaged for them. The degree of autonomy will depend upon their performance on all accounts.