Technical colleges will now need AICTE approval to begin online, distance learning courses
AICTE
says an institution that has NAAC score of 3.26 or has featured in top 100 of
NIRF ranking at least twice in 3 preceding cycles will be allowed to start open
or ODL courses.
The All India Council for
Technical Education (AICTE) has released a set of regulations to improve the
quality of engineering and management courses that are offered online and
through the open and distance learning (ODL) mode.
According to these regulations, which were released on 3 March,
institutions who wish to begin online courses in technical disciplines will now
need an AICTE approval.
Currently,
several unregulated engineering and management colleges’ offer distance
learning courses, which are not recognized by the AICTE.
As
a result, the council decided to come up with the AICTE (Open and Distance
Learning Education and Online Education) Guidelines, 2021.
“We
were getting feedback about many unregulated online and distance learning
courses being offered to students. The students would pay a hefty amount of fee
but when they eventually went for a job they faced hurdles because the courses
were not AICTE recognised. The regulations that we have come up with will apply
to all technical institutions who want to start online or distance learning
programmes. They will have to take approval from the council and adhere by the
rules,” a senior AICTE official, who wished to remain unnamed, told ThePrint.
Eligibility criteria for colleges, cap on number of students
The guidelines, a copy of which was accessed by ThePrint,
provide a road map on online courses for institutions.
To start with, the council has
come up with an eligibility criteria for institutions that can offer online or
open distance learning courses.
It states that an institution that has a National Assessment and
Accreditation Council (NAAC) score of 3.26 or has featured in the top 100 of
the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) at least twice in three
preceding cycles shall be permitted to start full-fledged open or ODL courses.
Furthermore,
colleges that offer online programmes will be able to admit a maximum of three
times the sanctioned number of students in the conventional mode of a
particular course.
For
students, the regulation notes that “a learner enrolled for a programme under
ODL mode and/or online mode in an institution recognized by the AICTE shall be
eligible for mobility from one mode of learning to another with the approval of
authorities.”
It
adds that a student residing in any part of the country will also be eligible
to enrol in any programme offered by an institution recognized by the AICTE
under the ODL mode.
Admissions,
contact programmes and examinations for learners will strictly need to be done
within the territorial jurisdiction of the institution, the rules state.
A
student residing outside India will also be able to enroll for an online course.
The
rules further state that “the programme offered by the institutions through ODL
mode/Online mode is equivalent to the Certificate/Diploma/PG Diploma/PG Degree
level programme offered in conventional mode”.
Regards!
Librarian
Rizvi
Institute of Management
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