Punjab News Express
MOHALI: A meeting of Federation of Self Financing Technical Institutions (FSFTI) was held at Constitution Club, New Delhi under the leadership of Sh. R.S Munirathinam, Chief Patron; Dr. Anshu Kataria, President, FSFTI and KVK Rao, General Secretary, FSFTI.
Federation requested Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) & All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), New Delhi to consider their problems and to resolve them at earliest for the survival of self financing technical institutions of the Country.
Common Fees for all:
Sh. R.S Munirathinam said that the fee structure in Educational Institutions deviates from every Institute to State to State. He urged All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), New Delhi to implement uniform fee structure in all the Educational Institutions across the Country.
Allow other courses in existing infrastructure:
Dr. Anshu Kataria while speaking said that out of total around 28 lakh Engineering seats in the Country, around 21 lakh seats left vacant in the session 2018-2019. Thus a huge infrastructure in technical colleges is lying vacant due to vacant seats in Engineering Colleges. Kataria urged AICTE to allow these institutions to start other courses like Pharmacy, Hotel Management, Architecture, MBA, Polytechnic Diploma etc in the existing surplus infrastructure only.
Private Universities should seek AICTE Approval:
Sh. KVK Rao, General Secretary, FSFTI said that as the statutory body AICTE allocates the number of seats to its approved colleges, same pattern should be adopted by AICTE for seat allocation to Private Universities of the Country. Rao also thanked AICTE for allotting the seats to Deemed Universities as per Hon’ble Supreme Court Order.
Reduced seats should be restored back whenever required:
Sh. Amit Sharma demanded from AICTE that if Institute reduces its intake more than 60 then that college should be permitted to restore it fully back whenever there is demand for that course. However till date AICTE permits only 30 seats to be restored.
NPA Colleges/Hospitals shouldn’t be treated as business entity:
Sri P Selvaraj, Treasurer, FSFTI said that 70% Education of the Country is being provided by the Private Entrepreneurs who have invested huge capital to set up the Colleges and infrastructure taking the loans from the banks. But considering the business entities, banks have started the auctions of these colleges. He said that Ministry of Finance and RBI should not treat the Colleges, Hospitals as the business entities as these are being opened for the social cause. They should be considered under Charitable Trusts.
AICTE Norms on the basis of seats filled not on Sanctioned Intake:
Mr. Lalit Aggarwal, Haryana Association urged that AICTE norms should be implemented and calculated on the basis intake filled and not on total Intake Capacity of the College. Say, if any college has total 300 seats in any course and only 150 gets filled so the AICTE Norms should be implemented on the basis of filled 150 seats for infrastructure, faculty etc and not total 300 intake capacity for that course.
Cutoff dates for Scholarship releasing as that for all other academic activities:
Kataria further said that MCI and AICTE has fixed the cut off dates for academic activities including Admissions, affiliations, approvals etc. Kataria demanded that why such deadlines can be fixed for the disbursement of Scholarship. So the Centre and State Govt should ensure that Colleges should get the Scholarship amount of these students at the earliest for the smooth running of the Institutions and to bail out these colleges from financial crunch. Students should also get their maintenance fees in time so they can spend well on their study material etc.
Areas for Computer Lab:
Eswaramoorthy T.D, Secretary Federation said that total Lab area should not be seen as 66 square metre but should be calculated in total areas of each dept. he further said that Computer labs will be used for first year only. In Second, Third and Final Year students should be asked to use their laptops.