What is AICTE?
The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) is the statutory body and a national-level council for technical education, under Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development.
Established in November 1945 first as an advisory body and later on in 1987 given statutory status by an Act of Parliament, AICTE is responsible for proper planning and coordinated development of the technical education and management education system in India.
The AICTE accredits postgraduate and graduate programs under specific categories at Indian institutions as per its charter.
It is assisted by 10 Statutory Boards of Studies, namely, UG Studies in Eng. & Tech., PG and Research in Eng. and Tech., Management Studies, Vocational Education, Technical Education, Pharmaceutical Education, Architecture, Hotel Management and Catering Technology, Information Technology, Town and Country Planning.
The AICTE has its new headquarters building in Delhi on the Nelson Mandela Road, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi, 110 067, which has the offices of the chairman, vice-chairman and the member secretary, plus it has regional offices at
- Kanpur
- Chandigarh
- Gurgaon
- Mumbai
- Bhopal
- Vadodara
- Kolkata
- Guwahati
- Bangalore
- Hyderabad
- Chennai
- Thiruvananthapuram.
In its 25 April 2013 judgment the Supreme Court said "as per provisions of the AICTE Act and University Grants Commission (UGC) Act, the council has no authority which empowers it to issue or enforce any sanctions on colleges affiliated with the universities as its role is to provide guidance and recommendations.
Subsequently AICTE was getting approval from the Supreme court to regulate technical colleges on a year to year basis till January 2016, when AICTE got blanket approval for publishing the Approval Process Handbook and approve technical colleges including management for the session 2016-17 and in all future sessions."
Key Description of AICTE:
Founded: November 1945
Sector: Technology education
Headquarters: New Delhi
Agency executive: Anil Sahasrabudhe (Chairperson)
Parent Agency: Department of Higher Education
Abbreviation: AICTE
Formation: November 1945
Headquarters: New Delhi
Location: Thiruvananthapuram, Kolkata, Chennai, Kanpur, Mumbai, Vadodara, Chandigarh, Guwahati, Bhopal, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Gurgaon
Chairman: Anil Sahasrabudhe
Member Secretary: Alok Prakash Mittal
Vice Chairman: M P Poonia
Affiliations: Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development
Official Website
Social Network: Facebook, Twitter
Objectives:
According to the All India Council for Technical Education, 1987, the AICTE is vested with statutory authority for planning, formulation and maintenance of norms and standards, quality assurance through school accreditation, funding in priority areas, monitoring and evaluation, maintaining parity of certification and awards and ensuring coordinated and integrated development and management of technical education in the country. In the words of the Act itself:
To provide for establishment of an All India council for Technical Education with a view to the proper planning and co-ordinated development of the technical education system throughout the country, the promotion of qualitative improvement of such education in relation to planned quantitative growth and the regulation and proper maintenance of norms and standards in the technical education system and for matters connected therewith.
Increase in Approved Institutions:
Growth of Technical Institutions in the Country
| Year | Engineering | Management | MCA | Pharmacy | Architecture | HMCT | Total |
| 2006–07 | 1511 | 1132 | 1003 | 665 | 116 | 64 | 4491 |
| 2007–08 | 1668 | 1149 | 1017 | 854 | 116 | 81 | 4885 |
| 2008–09 | 2388 | 1523 | 1095 | 1021 | 116 | 87 | 6230 |
| 2009–10 | 2972 | 1940 | 1169 | 1081 | 106 | 93 | 7361 |
| 2010–11 | 3222 | 2262 | 1198 | 1114 | 108 | 100 | 8004 |
| 2011–12 | 3393 | 2385 | 1228 | 1137 | 116 | 102 | 8361 |
| 2012–13 | 3495 | 2450 | 1241 | 1145 | 126 | 105 | 8562 |
| 2013–14 | 3384 | 2450 | 1241 | 1031 | 105 | 81 | 8562 |
| 2014–15 | 3392 | 2450 | 1241 | 1025 | 114 | 77 | 8562 |
| 2015–16 | 3364 | 2450 | 1241 | 1027 | 117 | 77 | 8562 |
| 2016–17 | 3288 | 2450 | 1241 | 1034 | 115 | 74 |
Reforms of AICTE
In 2016, three important initiatives were taken up by AICTE. First one was a responsibility given by MHRD to evolve a national MOOCs platform SWAYAM.
Second one is that of launching a Smart India Hackathon-2017 challenging the young bright talented students of technical colleges to solve the 598 problems of 29 different Government departments. Third one is that of launching of an AICTE's Student Start up Policy by Hon.
President on 16 Nov, during visitors conference from rashtrapati Bhavan. In 2009, the Union Minister of Education formally communicated his intentions of closing down AICTE and related body, the University Grants Commission (UGC).
This later led to reforms in the way the AICTE approves institutes, and to establishing the National Board of Accreditation (NBA) as an independent body.
On 6 June 2017, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the AICTE along with the University Grants Commission would be scrapped and replaced by a new body called Heera (Higher Education Empowerment Regulation Agency (HEERA).
This has been done in a bid to simplify the excessive regulations that exist due to both these bodies. According to the draft of law backed on the ideas of NITI Aayog and the Prime Minister Office, the National Council for Teacher Education was also planned to be subsumed by HEERA.