All India Council for Technical Education


The All India Council for Technical Education 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 and Thiruvananthapuram.
In its 25 April 2013 judgment the Supreme Court said "as per provisions of the AICTE Act and University Grants Commission 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."

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:

AICTE bureaus

The AICTE comprises following bureaus, namely:
For each bureau, adviser is the bureau head who is assisted by technical officers and other supporting staff. The multidiscipline technical officer and staff of the Council are on deputation or on contract from government departments, University Grants Commission, academic institutions, etc.

Increase in approved institutions

Growth of Technical Institutions in the Country
YearEngineeringManagementMCAPharmacyArchitectureHMCTTotal
2006–07151111321003665116644491
2007–08166811491017854116814885
2008–092388152310951021116876230
2009–102972194011691081106937361
2010–1132222262119811141081008004
2011–1233932385122811371161028361
2012–1334952450124111451261058562
2013–143384245012411031105818562
2014–153392245012411025114778562
2015–163364245012411027117778562
2016–17328824501241103411574

Growth of Seats in different Programs in Technical Institutions
YearEngineeringManagementMCAPharmacyArchitectureHMCTTotal
2005–064996973270843794435541219
2006–0755098694704568053951745434242750797
2007–08653290121867705135233445435275907822
2008–098410181495557399564211454357941139116
2009–1010718961795617829368537413363871408807
2010–1113145942778118721698746499173931790751
2011–12148589435257192216102746549176932046611
2012–131761976385008100700121652599684012236743

Reforms

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. This later led to reforms in the way the AICTE approves institutes, and to establishing the National Board of Accreditation 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. 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.