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:
e-Governance Bureau
Approval Bureau
Planning and Co-ordination Bureau and Academic Bureau
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
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
Growth of Seats in different Programs in Technical Institutions
Year
Engineering
Management
MCA
Pharmacy
Architecture
HMCT
Total
2005–06
499697
–
–
32708
4379
4435
541219
2006–07
550986
94704
56805
39517
4543
4242
750797
2007–08
653290
121867
70513
52334
4543
5275
907822
2008–09
841018
149555
73995
64211
4543
5794
1139116
2009–10
1071896
179561
78293
68537
4133
6387
1408807
2010–11
1314594
277811
87216
98746
4991
7393
1790751
2011–12
1485894
352571
92216
102746
5491
7693
2046611
2012–13
1761976
385008
100700
121652
5996
8401
2236743
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 UnionMinister 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.