Name: Role Of All India Council For Technical Education (AICTE)
Brand: MasterSoft
Rating: 4.7 (2163 reviews)

Prashant Borkar

03, November 2021

Technical education in India was offered sometime back in the mid 19th century. Hence, it was important to establish a body that assured the quality of technical education offered in several institutes. The colleges had to follow certain norms and standards set by the body before starting to offer the technical education courses to the students. This led to the formation of AICTE in 1945.

What is AICTE?

All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) is a national-level Apex Advisory Body that was established in November 1945 with an aim to conduct a survey on the facilities and provisions available for technical education in the institutes. The council aims to encourage India’s development in an integrated and coordinated manner. It comes under the Department of higher education and received a statutory status by an Act of Parliament in the year 1987. AICTE takes complete care of the planning and development of technical education in the institutes of the country.

AICTE is an advisory body for technical education. AICTE has statutory powers and has begun the formulation, maintenance, and planning of norms and standards. It is monitoring the accreditation, checking the courses and programs, and funding the priority areas in the field of technical education to ensure coordinated and integrated development of the colleges.

Objectives of All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE)

To create, implement and maintain the norms and standards by acting as a statutory authority.
To offer quality assurance through accreditation in institutes.
To offer quality assurance through accreditation in institutes
To understand the need, and provide funding for the priority areas.
To maintain parity of certification & awards in institutes
To implement and develop the technical education system of India

Bureaus under AICTE

There are eight major bureaus under AICTE-

Research
Institutional and Faculty Development Bureau
Planning and Coordination Bureau
Academic Bureau, University Bureau

Administration Bureau
Approval Bureau
Finance Bureau
e-Governance Bureau

Further, AICTE consists of 10 Board of Studies which includes technician, management, applied arts and crafts, hotel management, undergraduate engineering, vocational, postgraduate engineering and research, town and country planning, architecture, pharmacy, and catering technology education.

Vision & Mission of AICTE

Mission of AICTE

To be an objective regulator and facilitator
To offer transparent governance and accountable approach towards the society
To initiate planning and coordination the development of technical education in the country by implementing world-class education standards in institutes through accreditation
To facilitate technical education by improving affordability, resource utilization, technology forecasting, and dissemination of knowledge.

Vision of AICTE

“To be a world-class organization leading technological and socio-economic development of the Country by enhancing the global competitiveness of technical manpower and by ensuring high-quality technical education to all sections of the society.”

Roles and Responsibilities of AICTE in Technical Education

AICTE approves the upgrades in institutes such as the launch of new courses, an extension of the existing institutes, and the continuation of approval after having a break in the preceding academic year.
The council permits the establishment of new technical institutes in the country that would offer technical courses at different levels such as Degree, Diploma, Post Diploma, PG, PG Diploma, and PG.
Further, the AICTE also has to give approval for changing the site or location for technical education in the country.
Further, the AICTE also gives permission for the closure of the institutes if they apply for it.
AICTE India grants approval to the institutes that wish to convert Women's institutions into CO-Ed colleges and vice versa.
AICTE also helps to reduce or increase the intake, courses, first and regular shifts in the existing technical institutes.

AICTE Scholarships

National e-Scholarship

National e-Scholarship is for the students who are in need and seek various scholarships.

Vidya Lakshmi

Vidya Lakshmi is an initiative for students seeking an educational loan.

Pragati and Saksham

Pragati scheme offers scholarships for girls whereas; the Saksham Scheme scholarship is given to differently-abled students.

India Innovation Initiative

India Innovation Initiative offers India's largest innovation challenges jointly promoted by the CII and Department of Science & Technology.

AICTE courses

AICTE offers 49 courses online to interested students through an e-learning system. The courses are free of cost and accessible to all. The council has made sure to remove the language barrier among the students and introduced courses in the Hindi language as well. The courses can be accessible to all students willing to get knowledge and develop skills related to technology in any part of the country. They just require the student to have an internet connection and access to a laptop or mobile phone. The council offers courses starting from programming languages to data science and other technological aspects.

Functions of AICTE

The main functions of the AICTE include-

Ensure coordination for the development of technical education
Promote qualitative enhancements in technical education
Ensure maintenance of norms and standards in technical education
Ensure allocation of funds in priority areas, monitoring, and evaluation
Maintain the parity of certification and awards
Ensuring integrated development and management of technical education in the country
Evaluate the technical programs based on prescribed guidelines, norms, and standards
Grant approval to institutions for new courses and programs

AICTE Schemes and Initiatives

AICTE has initiated several schemes for the development of technical education in the country- Some of them include-

1. Student Development Schemes

Saksham Scholarship for Different Abled students
Prerna Scheme for SC/ST Students preparing for higher education
Pragati Scheme to award meritorious girls
Smariddhi Scheme for SC/ST students to help them with their startups

2. Faculty Development Schemes

Distinguished Visiting Professorship Scheme
National Initiative for Technical Teachers Training (NITTT)

3. Institutional Development Schemes

AICTE Scheme for promoting Interest, Creativity, and Ethics among Students
AICTE-IDEA (Idea Development, Evaluation & Application) Lab
E- SHODH SINDHU for free access to e-Journals/ e-Resources to AICTE approved
Government/ Government-Aided technical institutes

Research & Innovation Development schemes

Collaborative Research Scheme (CRS) to provide research grant to young faculty members
Entrepreneurship Development Cell

General Schemes

Saansad Aadarsh Gram Yojana for rural development

Importance of AICTE

All the engineering colleges as well as the colleges offering technical courses that come under the ambit of 10 statutory bodies of AICTE cannot offer these programs without attaining approval from AICTE. The colleges have to apply to AICTE for those offering the courses and then the council checks for the quality of education and authenticity of the courses. After all this is done, the AICTE grants permission to the colleges to offer these courses to the students in the institutes.

Difference between AICTE and UGC

A major difference between UGC (University Grants Commission) and AICTE is that the latter only is concerned with the technical institutes whereas the former deals with all types of colleges, offering all the courses. UGC is doing the work of granting approval to the universities. Further, it provides funds to the universities and colleges affiliated with it. The AICTE is a statutory council aimed towards encouraging coordinated development and offering technical education in the country. All the technical colleges and MBA colleges as well as Pharmacy colleges are affiliated with AICTE.

How can Colleges and Universities get AICTE Accreditation?

The colleges that want to apply for AICTE accreditation should come under the ambit of 10 statutory bodies of AICTE. Before applying the institutes must be well equipped with the required infrastructure, labs, faculty members, etc. The AICTE team will assess these aspects of the institutes and then grant approval based on that.

How does MasterSoft help you in Technical infrastructure?

MasterSoft is the most trusted ERP solution provider for educational institutes to manage their institute’s processes, tasks, activities and helps the faculty and students to adopt new methods of learning more easily. The company offers ,educational ERP software to the educational institutes along with other software such as the library management system, student data management system, accreditation management system, and others.

MasterSoft supports the technical colleges in offering a high quality of technical infrastructure and solutions for remote learning, distance education, online examination, management software so that the institutes can maintain the high quality of education as per the norms set by AICTE. The system helps these colleges to accumulate and store large amounts of data and information on cloud storage. The system ensures high security of the data and safe cloud backup. Further, the Accreditation Data Management Software helps the colleges to collect and maintain all the data and documents required to get AICTE accreditation.