The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has updated the previous criteria by providing greater flexibility for both the institutes and the applicants, in an effort to encourage working people to advance their academic credentials. Working professionals will no longer be limited to a 50-kilometer radial radius and will be able to study in institutes that are not NBA-accredited.
The new guidelines apply to institutions applying to run up to three courses in programmes such as BTech, MTech, Engineering Diploma, Management courses, Computer Applications, Design, Applied Arts and Crafts, Planning, Hotel Management, and Catering Technology for working professionals during the 2024-25 academic year.
The AICTE has released new guidelines for engineering courses for working professionals, which were released late last year. The guidelines limit the number of working professionals who can start their academic aspirations and mandate that HEIs must be NBA accredited to start the programs.
However, the new regulations do not require accreditation as long as institutions have over 80% average enrolment in the past three years. Enrolment of only the first year will be considered, not lateral entry admission.
The new guidelines are expected to attract more applications from HEIs, with January 31, 2024, as the last date. A committee headed by the director of IIM Bombay was set up to deliberate on the 50 km radial distance limit for working professionals who were keen to enrol for the courses. AICTE has mandated that professionals living within 75 km radial distance of the respective institutes are eligible for admission.
The new guidelines will conduct classes in the face-to-face (physical) mode to help candidates get a regular degree.
The programmes will be conducted in the evening hours or any flexible convenient timings in alignment with the timings of industry/organisation. No extra faculty will be required for the conduct of the programmes, and existing infrastructure of universities/colleges will be utilized to run the programmes. Existing faculty with requisite qualifications will be given additional remuneration/honorarium as per the affiliating university/state government/institute norms.
Institutions that want to provide admissions to working professionals can start up to three courses and can conduct the courses only if there is one-third students approved intake in each course.
They can also induct Professors of Practice (PoPs) to make the curriculum more industry-intensive. The permitted intake for PG-level courses is 15/30, while for Diploma/UG level courses, the numbers are 30/60.
Candidates are required to have minimum one year’s work experience and will be admitted as per the university/state admission policy. In the absence of any such policy, institutes can short list eligible candidates in a transparent manner based on merit of the qualifying examination, in consultation with the state admission authority.
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Source: Education Times
