Source: HINDUSTAN TIMES-12th February,2020
Management institutes that also offer postgraduate
diplomas in management (PGDM) will now have to run the two courses from
separate institutes, according to the All India Council for Technical
Education’s (AICTE) recently-released Approval Handbook 2020-21. The new rules
will be applicable from the next academic year (2020-21).
AICTE said the new rule requiring separate
infrastructure and resources for diplomas and PG degrees is in response to
complaints from local inquiry committees (LICs), which inspect institutes when
the latter apply for affiliation. Students have complained that they were
confused and even misled on occasion about the demarcation of faculty, fees and
infrastructure between PGDM and Masters in business administration (MBA)
courses in some colleges.
“While MBA institutes are affiliated to a particular
university, PGDM courses need no affiliation but need AICTE approval to run
classes. We have increasingly noticed how the LICs are fooled by the institutes
about infrastructure and faculty which might be registered for an MBA school,
but are highlighted as that of a PGDM course,” said Anil Sahasrabudhe,
chairman, AICTE.
Senior council officials said the process of
affiliation regularly gets delayed due to such problems, and the new rules are
meant to prevent such delays.
In some cases, colleges that run both PGDM and MBA
courses have also proposed the same fees for both courses to the respective
state fee regulating authorities.
“Despite sharing the infrastructure as well as the
faculty in some cases, many of these institutes claim that their professors for
both courses are equally qualified and deserve the same salary. Therefore, they
demand the same fees for both courses,” said a senior AICTE official.
However, among business schools, there is concern that
the changes may force many to stop PGDM courses.
“Separating the courses into two different institutes
means starting one of the courses from scratch, which is a challenge most
institutes will not be open to,” said the spokesperson of a city-based
management institute, on condition of anonymity.
Representatives of the institutes plan to discuss
their concerns with AICTE.
