Is AICTE’s unapproved list of b-schools really unapproved?

Every year, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) receives hundreds of applications from b-schools either seeking approval or for setting up of a new school. And every year, AICTE says ‘no’ to many of these.  This year, as many as 1,626 new institutes (out of the 2,176 that applied) failed to get the  AICTE  nod. This meant that list of AICTE’s unapproved colleges runs to all of 400 as of today.

PaGuLGuY called and visited many these ‘unapproved’  b-schools. While a few acknowledged that AICTE approval was yet to be received, quite a few were surprised to know they were on the ‘unapproved’ list.  Some schools said that  they had never applied to AICTE and others said or they were no more  interested in the AICTE stamp, though they had applied for it quite some time ago. Below is an account of  a few such b-schools.

Vasantada Patil Pratishthan’s Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai, a b-school which runs MBA part-time courses under the affiliation of Mumbai University  had to play host to an AICTE team visit some months ago. The team spoke about revoking the b-school’s license.  Dr. S. S. Dhond, the director of the b-school  told PaGaLGuY that he was surprised with AICTE’s visit. “We run only part time courses which are affiliated to Mumbai University under the government of Maharashtra. We don’t need AICTE to approve  any of our courses.”  The director added that the AICTE team had asked for documents to show the validity of our programmes. “We told them about the university affiliation and also the legal documents. They seemed convinced but our name is still on their list.”

Asia-Pacific Institute of Mangagement Studies and Indus world school of Business, both from Delhi, Indian Institute of Professional Studies and National Institute of Professional Studies, from Lucknow, National Institute of Advertising from Noida, PoK Institute of Technology and Management, Mathura, Uttar Pradhesh are some of the other b-schools that told PaGuLGuY that their courses are affiliated to some university, so did not need an AICTE approval and were surprised to find their names on the unapproved list.

Other schools like SB & M, International school of Business and Media and Eastern Institute for Integrated Learning in Management, both from Kolkata, Sai College(MBA, MCA), Mumbai and Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management, Kerala also told PaGuLGuy the same story. Some of them said they run part-time and distance courses, all of which are affiliated to a university.

A K Shukla, Regional Officer at AICTE western regional office, Mumbai was not one bit pleased to hear what the b-schools have to say. His answer was: “AICTE is the apex body of all technical educational institutes in India. It does not matter whether the college is recognised by Universal Grants Commission (UGC) or affiliated to any university, approval of AICTE is mandatory and these b-schools have to get an approval from AICTE.”

Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research is also on the unapproved list but is in a different league altogether. While Pagalguy was not able to speak to any official from Welingkar, past reports state that Wellingkar had approached the AICTE to run a particular course in the year 2009. Permission for the course did not come by and Wellingkar did not commence the course either but yet the name still figures on the list of ‘unapproved’ colleges.

Shukla was asked whether it is a case of AICTE not updating its website regularly, which is why  so many errors on the list. To this Shukla replied that the site is regularly updated by the  main AICTE office in Delhi

One b-school, which had met  a similar  fate some years ago,  decided to teach AICTE a lesson. SRM Univerisity, Chennai, -  a deemed university  filed a case against AICTE. In 2006, SRM University, took AICTE to court when the latter issued a notice stating that all the degrees awarded by deemed universities would not be recognised unless the courses were approved by the AICTE. The court ruled in favour of SRM and declared that SRM university could function without any approval from the AICTE approval.

A hilarious example is one of Hindustan Institute of Technology and Management, Mumbai. It’s director M K Jhai is clueless on why the AICTE has added his college to its unapproved list. “We don’t run any MBA course, we offer only BCA / BSC. We are not interested in MBA at all. Ask AICTE why our name figures,” he said.

When this correspondent asked why the name of the school has a ‘management’ added to the name when there was no management course offered, the reply from an official from there was even more hilarious. “It’s just for name sake. We are not interested in management studies.”

The western regional AICTE officer was shocked when he heard what Hindustan Institute of Technology and Management had to say. “Such b-schools are out there to cheat people. There are many more colleges which say that they are affiliated to Indra Gandhi Open University or some other university and offer full-fledged courses but in fact they are not affiliated and don’t have the authority to the courses. Such colleges are out there only to make some money.”

When asked why there was a constant tension between AICTE and b-schools, officials connected to b-schools said that it was a matter of keeping control. Rajendra Dash, an officer at Education Promotion Society for India (EPSI) said that AICTE tries to keep control over b-schools but don’t have efficient guidelines to do so, which is why issues like these come up.

Prof. Jayaram K Iyer of Loyola Institute of Business Administration, Chennai, said that whatever be the case an AICTE stamp does make a huge difference in running a b-school. “Those b-schools/courses that are approved by AICTE have a better name in the market.”