Confusion reigns over 'approved' courses

Pune: The recently released handbook of the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) for the academic year 2016-17 is expected to create some problems regarding the nomenclature of 'approved courses'.
While the University Grants Commission's July 2014 guidelines had created a number of issues lot of problems with educational institutions, colleges since they had to cancel various courses as per guidelines, AICTE's handbook will create fresh again is going to create problems as it mentions courses that were cancelled by UGC have been mentioned in the AICTE handbook.

In July 2014, after finding discrepancies in various heads under which colleges and universities were offering courses, UGC had tried to normalise the courses by issuing a gazette for specification of degrees. Universities and other institutes were asked to adhere to the nomenclature specified by the UGC gazette strictly from this academic year onwards. This had caused a several lot of problems with management courses as many colleges were running courses that had beenwhich were derecognized by the UGC.

W N Gade, vice chancellor of Savitribai Phule Pune University, said, "This is a serious matter and if it is not resolved immediately, it will create problems for the colleges as well as students taking admission to these courses. Many a times, both the Union government agencies work independently without consulting each other and this leads to both of them taking a contradictory stand and going to court against each other."

Pointing towards out to the problems faced by management colleges last year when several courses were derecognized by UGC, Gade said, "The university gets caught between AICTE and UGC. We are a traditional university and we have to follow UGC guidelines. However, for technical courses, we require have to get AICTE approval. Now, if a college starts a course recognized by AICTE but not by UGC, it will not get recognition by National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). Now NAAC accreditation , which is compulsory. Moreover, since students will already be admitted to the course, they will have to move court which will again lead to a huge controversy. In the meantime, it is the university and the students will suffer the most. Hence there is a need for coordination between central agencies deciding fate of students across the country."

A B Dadas, director of Neville Wadia Institute of Management Studies and Research added, "This is exactly the kind of confusion the top bodies create due to which institutes and students suffer. For inclusion of a course in the UGC gazette, the university has to send a proposal. In our case, the Pune varsity sent proposals for approval after the gazette was published due to which many students pursuing management courses were left in the lurch after their course had been deemed illegal by UGC." Dadas added that cases related to these issues are going before both There are cases going on in both the Bombay high court and the Supreme Court over the same problem. "Not just us, institutions across the country are facing this problem because both top bodies refusing to work together," he stated.