Government to restore old powers of AICTE

The Union government is planning to introduce legislation that would reverse a Supreme Court order and restore the powers of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to oversee technical institutes including engineering and business schools—a move that would cheer thousands of professional colleges left in a regulatory vacuum by the ruling. “We are for restoring the powers of AICTE,” said Ashok Thakur, Secretary, Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD). “We have taken the opinion of the law ministry on it. Instead of an ordinance route, we will go through legislative route.”

On 25 April, the Supreme Court ruled that AICTE does not have the authority to control or regulate professional colleges that are affiliated to universities, rendering the once-powerful technical education regulator ineffective and leaving some 11,000 professional colleges without an overseer. Nearly a million students graduate from these colleges every year.

In December, the University Grants Commission (UGC) unveiled draft guidelines to regulate the institutes, which have been at a loss regarding how to operate in the absence of a regulatory mechanism, for instance, getting approval for plans to raise or lower their student intake. Thakur indicated that UGC will serve as a stop-gap regulator of these institutes until the AICTE’s powers are restored. He said that a joint coordination committee of UGC, AICTE and officials of the MHRD had met earlier this week and are again meeting on 10 January to chalk out their strategy.

As an interim measure, AICTE will continue to set the standards for professional colleges to follow; the National Board of Accreditation (NBA), another government body, will conduct the assessments; and UGC, through the universities under it, will offer affiliation and approvals to these technical schools.

The MHRD plans to introduce the draft law in the next session of Parliament and table it most probably in the Rajya Sabha. Bills moved in the upper house of the Parliament will not lapse even if the Lok Sabha is dissolved in the run-up to the general election due by May. 

To be sure, the window open for the Bill to be passed is narrow. “We will push for it in the coming (budget) session and if it cannot get passed, then it will carry over for early resolution in the next government,” Thakur said. If that scenario pans out, the stop-gap regulatory arrangement would be in place for one academic session.

Legislation restoring AICTE’s powers would mean that professional colleges would be able to stay clear of UGC’s control and command structure while ensuring that they emerge from the regulatory limbo they found themselves in after the Supreme Court order. It will also help the government avoid legal hassles. 

Several associations of private colleges, including the Education Promotion Society of India, have been planning to move the Supreme Court against the new guidelines of UGC. They argue that coming under UGC’s fold will take away their autonomy—their curriculum, for instance, will have to be prescribed by the university to which they are affiliated. The curriculum is often outdated and out of step with industry requirements.

“The autonomy of the top colleges should not be violated. A regulator is important but UGC regulation via universities is not desirable,” said Harivansh Chaturvedi, director of the Birla Institute of Management Technology in Greater Noida on the outskirts of New Delhi.

Source: Mint, January 4, 2014

UGC: New technical education norms not for diploma courses

The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) and University Grants Commission (UGC) on Monday said the new regulations being drafted for technical educations institutions will affect only affiliated colleges and those offering graduate degrees. A senior official said, “Draft regulations will leave out institutions offering all diploma courses.”

Clarification has come in the wake of reports that a large number of management institutions are planning to go to the Supreme Court (SC) against the proposed UGC regulations. Their plea is that regulation by UGC will delay the admission process that is already in motion.

The UGC had come into the picture after the Supreme Court (SC) earlier this year said approval of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) is not required for obtaining permission and running MBA course by private institutions since it does not fall under the definition of technical education. The SC had also said AICTE’s role vis-a-vis universities is “only advisory, recommendatory and one of providing guidance and has no authority empowering it to issue or enforce any sanctions by itself.” Instead, the apex court had said regulatory function is with the UGC or the university.

Ministry sources said, “Management institutions have not understood the Supreme Court judgement. It does not impact diploma courses by non-affiliated institutions. Regulations have not been finalized yet. It will take some more time.” MHRD’s effort to amend the AICTE Act to circumvent the SC order has not happened so far and is unlikely to take place in the remaining few months of UPA-II government. 

Meanwhile, in order to implement SC judgment, UGC got into the act. Earlier, it wrote to universities with affiliating colleges that no new courses should be approved by them. The Commission had said it would also not approve any new course. A senior UGC official said, “Regulations have to be in place before the 2014-15 admission session begins. AICTE had already finished the process for 2013-14 by the time SC order came.” But AICTE officials are still hopeful that regulatory function will be restored either through amendment or ordinance.

Source: The Times of India, December 31, 2013

Indian Government to ease norms for African students

India’s foreign policy focus on Africa is soon going to reflect in its educational policy also. The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) while reworking its initiative for foreign students has decided that students from Africa should get special attention in Indian educational institutions, both in government and private.

MHRD sources said India has become an attractive educational destination not only for African students who come on government scholarship but even those who can pay for their study. “We want them to attend good institutions,” a source said. 

MHRD has also decided to put in place a new mechanism that will ensure that after students are allotted a university they should go to good colleges. On the lines of many US universities, the ministry also wants Indian universities to conduct remedial courses for African students. Earlier this month, a senior ministry official received a lot of complaints from African students about the lack of infrastructural facilities as also about their problems in various colleges of Pune that offer courses in Marathi language. These students — mostly on scholarship offered by the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) and Indian Technical Education Cooperation — said they are facing problems from Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO).

As part of its comprehensive programme to attract foreign students and make their stay in India comfortable, MHRD Secretary Ashok Thakur has mooted a new scheme to make international hostel and foreign student office in 15-20 universities. “Foreign Student Office should be one stop institution that should take care of all the needs of foreign students so that they do not have to run around for various clearances,” ministry official said.

The ministry has convened a meeting of University Grants Commission (UGC), ICCR, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to look into the issues relating to welfare of foreign students. A seminar has been organized in Pune that has a large number of foreign students and vice-chancellors and deans of universities having sizeable foreign students to emphasize upon them the need for welfare of foreign students studying in India.

Source: The Times of India, December 22, 2013

Amity university gets HRD nod to set up campus in UK

The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has given permission to the Amity University to set up an off-shore campus in London. Amity University is collaborating with the Anglia Ruskin University in the United Kingdom.

While granting permission, the ministry has said any degree to be awarded through the “said off-shore campus in United Kingdom shall distinctly and prominently distinguish itself from the degree certificate awarded by Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, for all its programmes conducted/offered in India.”

It has added that “degree certificates to be awarded in respect of the academic programme of the off-shore campus in UK shall clearly bear the name of the off-shore campus.”

While this would raise some questions about the Amity off-shore campus degree, Amity’s Chancellor Atul Chauhan said, “Being an off-shore campus of an Indian university, the degrees will be very much Indian. There is no other possibility. What the ministry has written is that for the sake of employment in certain professions in India the students will be deemed as if they obtained a foreign degree. For example, the medical council and bar council have certain guidelines for students who have studied outside India to do certain exams before they can practice.”

Iain Adlington, Senior Policy Advisor, Department for Business Innovation & Skills had told Amity in December 2012 that “the degree courses offered by your institution are not UK degree courses, apart from those validated by Anglia Rukin University or are validated by any other UK institution that has degree awarding powers.”

“On this basis, the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills would have no objection to use the word university in the proposed trading name Amity University,” Adlington had said. However, he had reiterated, “I confirm that there is no specific permission required by this department and that institutions based outside the UK can set up a campus here and teach courses that would lead to the award of a non-UK degree.”

On this, Chauhan said, “It is absolutely correct that as a foreign university in UK we have to mention is all our communications that the degree is not a UK degree. Only universities established by the UK government can offer UK degrees. We are an off-shore campus of an Indian university offering Indian degrees in UK. However, this in no way means that degrees of Amity will not be valid in UK. They will be valid as any other degree of an Indian university is valid in UK.”

Chauhan added, “It is a very big step in the private university sector to get permission to have off-shore campuses and we feel pride to have a university flying the Indian flag on foreign shores.”

MHRD has also said there shall be no financial or any other liability on Indian government. Also, the off-shore campus will not be allowed to divert faculty or any academic infrastructure from its Noida campus.

Source: The Times of India, December 20, 2013

Faculty shortage hits IITs

Source: The Economic Times, December 19, 2013

Manipal University breaks into top 100 universities in BRICS countries

Manipal University has broken into the international rankings finding itself among the top 100 universities in BRICS countries. This was announced by UK-based QS Quacquarelli Symonds in Russia on Tuesday and is called the “QS University Rankings: BRICS”.

Reacting to the ranking, Chancellor, Dr. Ramdas M Pai said: While I have reason to be happy, this will be an impetus to strive for even better performance in the future. Vice Chancellor, Dr. K Ramnarayan said: Our endeavor to be a world class university through education and research has begun to show result. The core functions of our university are better reflected in this BRICS QS Ranking. Now that we have a foothold, we will do our best to move up the ladder.

This is the first ranking for the BRICS countries and Manipal University is the only private university in the country to find a place in the new rankings.

The methodology used for the ranking has eight indicators. Academic Reputation is one. Based on the QS annual global reputation survey, it accounts for 30 per cent of a university’s score. Employer reputation, also drawn from the QS global employer survey accounts for 20 per cent. Faculty-student ratio and citations per paper, both account for 10 per cent of the score. Five per cent is awarded for proportions of international faculty and international students.

Papers per faculty are worth 10 per cent of the total score and staff with PhD is given another 10 per cent. “The proposal is to use a methodology that is comparable with some of the existing exercises, probably closest in nature to what we are doing in our Latin America Ranking with some additional data particularly PhD-qualified faculty,” said Ben Sowter, Head of the QS Intelligence Unit.

Country Director QS Asia, Dr. Karthick Sridhar said: At a glance, according to our data, Manipal University outperforms many Indian institutions in terms of Faculty Student Ratio and International students whilst maintaining a strong employer reputation. While improvements are needed in areas of Academic Reputation and Research measures, the management appreciates that rankings are being increasingly acknowledged as a tool to measure and determine one’s choice of a university across the world, and hence have initiated several steps to engage closely with ranking agencies and provide the most updated data so as to reflect their true picture.

Zoya Zaitseva, Project Director for QS University Rankings: BRICS, said that BRICS countries were investing heavily in higher education and research. “The new ranking will increase their visibility and allow these universities to become more recognized on a global level”.

Source: The Times of India (Online Edition), December 17, 2013

5 IITs in top 20 BRICS universities list

Five Institutes of Technology (IITs) are in the top 20 in the world’s first dedicated ranking of universities in the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) group of countries. China’s universities dominated the table with 40 universities featured in the top 100, 22 in the top 50 and 4 in the top 5 with Tsinghua University being ranked the best university.

According to the “QS University Rankings: BRICS”, Russia has 19 of its universities in the top 100, Brazil 17, India 16 and South Africa 8 in the list.

IIT-Delhi takes the top ranking (13) among Indian universities followed by IIT-Mumbai (15), IIT-Madras (16), IIT-Kanpur (17) and IIT-Kharagpur (18). There is then a huge gap on that merit list when it comes to Indian entries. The next rank for an Indian university is once again IIT-Rourkee (34) and IIT-Guwahati (51).

University of Calcutta is ranked 52nd best in BRICS followed by University of Delhi at 53. University of Mumbai is ranked 62, University of Hyderabad 64, University of Madras 70, Benaras Hindu University 85, IIT-Allahabad 92, University of Pune 94 with Manipal University taking the 100th spot.

Zoya Zaitseva, Project Director for QS University Rankings said, “It is not surprising that China leads, given the size of its economy and population and the massive resources it has been putting into higher education. As with the QS World University Rankings, this BRICS ranking points to a sharp contrast between Indian and Chinese achievement in higher education. Despite being only marginally smaller in population, India has only 16 institutions listed here, less than half China’s. While India has world-class institutions in science and technology, its comprehensive universities are not as strong in an international context.”

The QS World University Rankings published recently also featured 11 Indian institutions in the top 800 with the highest ranking going to IIT-Delhi which was placed 222 in the list. Two other institutions made it to the top 300 — IIT-Bombay (233) and IIT-Kanpur (295). IIT-Madras was ranked 313 while IIT-Kharagpur stood at 346.

India scored just 2.4 when it came to International faculty in its colleges while the average global count was 38.1 in 2013. When it came to international students, India’s points were miserably low – at 3.1 as against an average global score of 37.9. As far as faculty student ratio was concerned, India got 29.4 points as against the global average of nearly 45.

The BRICS ranking is the first of its kind to apply a dedicated methodology especially designed to place the featured nations on a more equal footing. The results are made up of respondents from over 9,800 academics from the nations.

Zoya Zaitseva added, “BRICS countries are focusing on developing world-class universities as a strategic priority to sustain the growth of their economies by producing innovation, cutting- edge research and highly qualified and employable graduates. This first ranking reflects the relative strengths of each of these ambitious nations while also highlighting the potential for growth.”

QS’ recent world’s 200 top list had shown that not a single Indian university figured in the world’s top 200 list.

Source: The Times of India, December 17, 2013

MHRD panel’s move will make 39 central universities lose autonomy

In a move that will take away the autonomy of 39 Central universities, a high-level committee set up by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has recommended that they be brought under a legislation of Parliament. If recommendation of the panel is implemented, universities will lose the autonomy of appointing teachers, managing their finances and diversity of courses to be offered.

At present 39 central universities — including the old ones like the Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), Delhi University (DU), Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and others — are managed by 24 Acts of Parliament. In 2009, 16 new central universities were created under a single Act of Parliament. The committee, headed by A M Pathan, former Vice-Chancellor of Central University of Karnataka, has recommended that the existing Acts should be repealed. “Government should reject the recommendation forthwith. If implemented, it will take away the diversity of Indian higher education. Intervention like four-year undergraduate programme will be expanded to other universities,” one VC of Delhi-based central university said.

Though Pathan committee has said visions of luminaries like Madan Mohan Malaviya (BHU), Rabindranath Tagore (Shantiniketan), Jawaharlal Nehru (JNU), Sir Syed Ahmed Khan (AMU) and B R Ambedkar (Ambedkar University) will be retained, the recommendations are going to cause furore in some of these old institutions.

Pathan Committee has said the office of chancellor should be abolished and a Council of Vice-Chancellors (CVCs), a new body, be put in place. CVCs will be headed by the MHRD minister as ex-officio chairperson and consist of University Grants Commission (UGC) chairperson, all VCs of central universities, four members nominated by the central government representing Ministries of MHRD, Finance, Youth Affairs and Science and Technology, not less than three but not more than five members to be nominated by the Visitor (President of India) and three Members of Parliament. CVCs will co-ordinate the activities of all the central universities, advise on matters of policy relating to academic matters, synchronize academic calendars and other functions.

VCs will be appointed by a search-cum-selection committee consisting of nine members. Of the nine members of the panel, three will be nominated by the Visitor, six by the CVC out of which one will be from the scheduled caste, one from socially and educationally backward classes, one woman and one from a minority community.

In a bid to curtail VCs independence and make him subservient to UGC, immediately after appointment s/he is expected to give a report to the UGC about varsity’s infrastructure, number of posts of teachers, employees, details of research, courses, collaboration with other institutions and perspective plan in respect of academics, administration and development.

If this is not enough, the committee has recommended establishment of the Central Universities (teachers, registrar and finance officer) Recruitment Board that will make centralized appointment of assistant professors. Candidates will give preference for allotment of central university but the decision will rest with the recruitment board. Performance of teachers will be done through external peer review. Universities will have the option of either admitting students through a common test or evolve its own procedure.

Source: The Times of India, December 14, 2013

New IITs face a rough placement ride this year

Placements at the new Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are headed for a bumpy ride. Behind the excitement of the big companies and bigger offers on campus lurk serious concerns: companies staying away, students in certain streams facing a struggle to get placed and the challenge of placing bigger batches at a time when recruiters are hiring in lower numbers.

Most of these IITs are apprehensive about how placements will pan out given that a number of recruiters – particularly among public sector undertakings (PSUs) – are staying away. IOC, BPCL, HPCL, ONGC, Power Grid Corporation of India are among those that have hired in good numbers in the past, but have not sent out feelers this time round. New IITs are hoping they will reach out in January, but some placement sources admit it may not happen.

In February 2012, an interim order passed by the Madras High Court had restrained PSUs from recruiting in leading colleges including the IITs. The stay was later vacated by the court in September 2012 but the final order is pending. In such a situation, according to an IIT placement official, PSUs can come to campuses under the condition that the decision on whoever is hired will be subject to the High Court’s final directive. A negative decision thus, could leave students hired but jobless.

“We haven’t invited any PSUs and they haven’t contacted us either. As of now, none of them are coming,” says IIT-Ropar’s Training and Placement Officer Prabh Sharan Singh. Last year, PSUs had hired 24 to 25 students of IIT Ropar’s 106 students. It’s a similar situation at IIT Jodhpur and IIT Mandi as well. “IOC, BPCL and HPCL, which came last year, are not coming this year,” says Arti Kashyap, Faculty Advisor at IIT-Mandi. If PSUs in most cases are a no-show, some of the big names which came last year have either not come to certain campuses this time or in certain cases, are not recruiting.

At IIT-Hyderabad, Works Applications, which hired students for Rs. 3.5 million for international placements last year, did not recruit any this time round. At IIT-Ropar, Microsoft which offered four pre-placement offers last year has offered only one, and not made it to the final on-campus placements. Google too could not come to IIT-Ropar because of date issues. “Companies like Microsoft, HPCL and Flipkart, which came last year will not come this year, stating changes in hiring policy,” says Gaurav Harit, Acting Placement Chairperson, IIT-Jodhpur.

In 2013, the institute placed only 73% of its B.Tech. and 60% of its M.Tech. batch. This year, 38 students have been recruited so far from among the 90 sitting for placements.The highest offer so far has been Rs. 1.3 million from Morgan Stanley compared with Microsoft’s Rs 1.6 million last year.

“Conditions are moderate and we expect placements to be similar to 2013 but not surpassing it,” says an IIT-Hyderabad placement team member. Last year, 40 companies came to hire 150 students. This year, while the number of students has risen to 200, the number of companies are expected to remain the same. With bigger batches to place this time, the new IITs are reaching out to a larger number of companies so that placements are not hit. But hurdles remain. At IIT-Jodhpur, authorities are worried because the manufacturing sector has been hit by the downturn.

Even IIT-Mandi — among the few new IITs to achieve 100% placements last year — which got a headstart this year by opening a placement window in October, is concerned. “Companies which hire mechanical and electrical engineering students are likely to be cutting down on numbers because of the downturn,” says Prabh Sharan Singh of IIT-Ropar. 

Amidst all this, there is good news. IIT-Rohtak has seen three top offers of $105,000 from US healthcare software company Epic Systems, compared with two last year. The average salary so far is Rs 1.13 million, up 21% from last year’s Rs. 917,000, and 18 students have bagged Rs. 1.5 million-plus salaries. At IIT-Mandi, Amazon has hired six students for Rs. 2 million, compared with top offers of around Rs. 1.7-Rs. 1.8 million from Microsoft and Amazon last year.

At IIT-Gandhinagar, average salary has grown by 8% to Rs. 781,000 while IIT-Patna has seen the top salary soaring from Rs. 1.6 million-plus last year to over Rs. 1.8 million. At IIT-Varanasi, Microsoft is making an international offer — the first this placement season — likely to be at around Rs. 6 million.

Source: The Economic Times, December 13, 2013

Government sets up two funds to underwrite education loans

The government has finally set up a pair of credit guarantee funds that will underwrite up to 75% of the value of loans extended to students—a move it expects will make banks shed their reluctance to offer educational loans. The education credit guarantee fund has a corpus of Rs. 35 billion and the skill education credit guarantee fund has been endowed with Rs. 10 billion, three government officials said on condition of anonymity. They will start offering guarantees for student loans starting in January 2014.

There is also a stipulation that the interest rate charged by banks for education loan cannot be more than 2% over the existing base rate of the bank. A plan to set up such funds was announced by then Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in his 2012-13 budget speech to improve the comfort level of banks in extending student loans that are perceived as risky and potentially contributing to non-performing assets (NPAs).

The Department of Financial Services of the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) have been discussing the proposal for almost two years. “With a guarantee in place, banks will now be more forthcoming to lend to students. The initial corpus will be Rs. 35 billion,” said a government official, one of the three cited above.

The size of the twin funds has been pared from an originally planned Rs. 50 billion. The MHRD will soon set up a panel to chalk out details of implementing the plan, the official said. For underwriting a loan, the credit guarantee fund can charge the banks a fee up to a maximum of 1% of the loan amount, said a second government official. While all higher education loans of up to Rs. 750,000 will be eligible for the guarantee, skill education loans up to Rs. 150,000 will be underwritten.

“The Cabinet approved both the funds two weeks back but it has not been announced yet, as it was election time,” said the first official, referring to just concluded elections in five states. “We have been getting several complaints from needy students about banks’ lukewarm response towards education loans but we believe from now on this will change.”

Although education loans have grown significantly over the years, slowing economic growth and a poor jobs scenario since 2008-09 have fuelled concerns among bankers about the repayment capability of fresh graduates. Over 5% of student loans outstanding had turned bad by March-end, up from 2% in 2008, according to government data.

“Any student taking a loan for higher studies does not plan to default by choice. It’s the circumstance or job scenario that forces some to delay the repayment, but banks always hesitate to lend to students,” said Ashok Sarangi, a student in Delhi preparing for an MBA course. “I don’t know much about the credit guarantee fund but what many students like me wish is cooperation from banks. The cost of education has gone up and loan has become almost a necessity for many,” he said.

Educational loans grew by 8.5% in the last one year, half the pace at which the overall priority sector loans grew. The priority sector comprises of several segments including education, housing, agriculture, and micro and small scale industries. As of March 2013, banks had 2.51 million education loan accounts, with a total outstanding of Rs. 535.20 billion.

The funds will be set up under a national credit-guarantee trustee company, an umbrella vehicle that will be responsible for the operations of both. However, both funds will have their own managing committees to decide on their policies. While the managing committee for education loans will be headed by the MHRD with representatives from the ministry of finance, banks and a sector expert, the committee at the skill development fund will be headed by the Ministry of Finance with representatives from the Ministry of Labour, the second official said.

Of the Rs. 35 billion approved for the educational loans guaranteed fund, the government will spend Rs. 5 billion in the remaining months of this fiscal and the remaining Rs. 30 billion will be progressively used over next few years. Similarly, the skill education fund will use Rs. 5 billion in this fiscal year and the rest in the next.

Source: Mint, December 11, 2013