MOHALI: A delegation of Punjab Unaided Colleges Association (PUCA) met Prof. M.P. Poonia, Vice Chairman, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), New Delhi under the leadership of Dr. Anshu Kataria, President, PUCA. Kataria demanded major reform in Approval Process Handbook (APH) 2020. He emphasized to save dying technical education and Self Financed Colleges of the country for which AICTE needs to come forward to rescue the Technical Colleges.
Poonia assured that without compromising the quality AICTE will do its best for more reforms in APH 2020.
New norms should be on the basis of seats filled instead of total intake:
Kataria who is also the Chairman of Chandigarh based Aryans Group of Colleges said that AICTE norms should be applicable on the basis of seats filled instead of total seats sanctioned by AICTE. He added that to get the approval or for the extension of approval, a big infrastructure including land, buildings, equipments & machinery, furniture & fixture, computers, faculty etc is required. On the other hand, the entire infrastructure goes waste when seats are not filled. It is not wastage of investment only rather it is wastage of the national resources.
Around 95% of Colleges catering Technical education are Private:
Sh. Amit Sharma, Senior Vice President, PUCA added that there is 95% contribution of private institutions in providing technical education and in a way, these institutions are creating employment opportunities and playing a vital role in the development of the Country.
AICTE can revive the dying Educational Institutions:
S. Gurpreet Singh, General Secretary, PUCA, said that AICTE should come up with new policies and norms such that surplus resources could be utilized. But these days’ Unaided colleges are in a big financial crunch and should be bailed out.