Set up as an advisory body, All India Council of Technical Education, popularly referred to as AICTE gives approvals for setting up new technical educational institutes across India. By an Act of the Parliament, this body provides legal status to new technical institutes that come up in the country. All major criterions for the technical courses; for instance the intake capacity of the courses or introduction of new courses need to be approved by the AICTE to come into action.
There has been a phenomenal increase in the number of engineering colleges and polytechnics in the country since independence. Post independence, five year plans introduced by the government took technical education in India to a completely new level. With the setting up of the AICTE, private and voluntary organisations can set up technical institutes in our country on a self-financing basis; thereby making India grow rapidly in terms of practical education.
Educational institutes need to abide by the norms set by the AICTE for ensuring that the standards of education in our country are not tampered. With the establishment of this legal body, the proper planning and coordination of technical institutes across India became a reality.
World class institutions across the world have inspired our law makers to promote the same standards of education in our very own country. Thus the AICTE carries forward its vision of enhancing technical manpower in our country; especially for India as a rapidly growing nation it desperately needs good people in terms technical knowledge.
The AICTE takes proper care of what institutes need an approval and whether or not those organisations are fit to be deemed as universities eligible for technical education. Setting up all new technical campuses including degree, diploma, postgraduate diploma and post diploma level courses needs a prior AICTE approval. It is for the AICTE to decide which institutions can be converted into legal technical campuses. Under cases where any institutes goes against the norms set by the council, AICTE can also go on to take legal actions under the governance of the constitution. The terms of approval and the guidelines for having violated the regulations of the council are well explained to the institutions before they seek for an AICTE approval.
The AICTE functions in a very orderly manner and covers a large range of educational institutes such as architecture, hotel management and catering technology, pharmacy, management studies computer applications, engineering/technology, and applied arts and crafts. An executive committee of the council helps the AICTE function and discharge its duties.
As per the latest statistics of the technical institutes across India, around 3495 Engineering institutes and 2450 Management institutes are approved by the AICTE across India. In addition to these there are numerous MCA, Pharmacy, Architecture and Hotel Management institutes in the country that are approved by the AICTE.
AICTE’s headquarters are located in the capital city of India, Delhi. For efficient management of regional institutions, a number of regional offices are also spread across major cities of India like Kolkata, Kanpur, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Chandigarh and Bhopal. There is also a new office of the council coming up in the city of Hyderabad for the management of regional centres there.
