Govt repeats warning to new tech institutes — don’t try to sound like IIT, IIM, IISc
New Delhi: Engineering and technology colleges can only introduce new courses in “emerging areas” like robotics and Artificial Intelligence (AI), and not in conventional fields, once the 2020-21 academic session starts.
The rule is among new guidelines released by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), the apex body for technical education, earlier this month. Among other things, the guidelines also reiterate a rule, in place since 2018, barring institutes from adopting names that give them the same abbreviations as premier government institutions like the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs).
The guidelines, issued 4 February, lay down the benchmark for approval of technical institutions — or renewal of permissions — for the academic year 2020-21.
They also seek to address oversupply in engineering education that results in hundreds of seats going vacant every year. To this end, the guidelines state that institutes looking to bolster intake and start additional courses will only be permitted to do so in “emerging areas”.
An emerging area is a new field of study. The examples listed by the AICTE include Artificial Intelligence [AI], Internet of Things [IoT], blockchain [the technology behind Bitcoin, etc], robotics, quantum computing, data sciences, cybersecurity, 3D printing and design, and augmented reality/virtual Reality (AR/VR).
“The latest AICTE regulations are expected to create an academic ambience… for nurturing and supporting quality, so that technical education in India will be one of the best in the world,” said AICTE chairman Anil Sahasrabudhe.