CHENNAI: Amid the confusion among students and parents over the status of the engineering programmes offered by the unaided deemed universities in the State, the statements emerging from the various agencies involved denote only one direction. The deemed universities need not get approval from the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) for starting a new technical education programme.

As R.P. Yadav, Vice Chairman of the Council noted: "They certainly can start the programme. However the question is maintenance of standards and norms. They were once affiliated colleges and secured approval for a certain number of seats intake in each programme. But when some of the deemed universities admit 600 or 700 people into each programme, we are concerned about the norms and standards," he adds.

He says that it is to articulate this concern, especially among the students — "about whom we are most concerned" — that the AICTE released its two notifications last month stating that no institution including a university or deemed university could run a programme "without ensuring maintenance of standards and norms prescribed by the Council... "

Circulars sent

Officials in the Council note that they had sent circulars to the deemed universities seeking specific details on intake, student-teacher ratio, cadre ratio. Many of them complied, but some deemed universities got a Court stay on this circular. Whether they needed to tender the particulars to the AICTE or what action the latter would take, all depended on the outcome of the litigation, the officials noted.

Academician professor M. Anandakrishnan says approval for technical education programmes would benefit the students seeking work or admissions abroad. "Many universities and colleges or programmes are emerging everyday. It is difficult for a visa granting officer in a consulate or an admitting official in a foreign university to gauge the standard of the students. So the officer will see whether the candidate emerges from a course that is approved by the statutory body of that nation, and whether the programme is accredited with the national accrediting body in that country." He notes that in India, for a programme to get accreditation, prior approval by a national body was necessary.

When asked whether the UGC's approval was not enough for the student from a deemed or stand-alone university, Prof. Anandakrishnan said that the UGC did not have norms for technical education programmes., as did the AICTE. Even the UGC needed to adopt only the Council norms for any evaluation, he adds.

However, joining issue with him is R. Sethuraman of SASTRA Deemed University, Thanjavur, who asks whether all the approved programmes of the AICTE followed its own norms and standards. "If it were so, why should the AICTE Chairman or industry leaders say that most of the engineering graduates were unemployable? Do all these 70,000 engineering graduates come only from deemed universities? While AICTE could ask for adhering to norms, it should also be noted that approval was not necessary or mandatory as per the settled legal position."

"Even Anna University is running some programmes without AICTE approval or norms." He says the violence and unpleasantness could have been avoided had by the AICTE advertisement mentioned that the term "institutions" did not include universities and deemed universities.

He had written to the Chairpersons of the AICTE and the UGC asking them to intervene in the matter, issue a clarification statement on the issue of approval for the programmes, lest the problem spread to other institutions.

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