Top B schools reject new norms set by AICTE

Business schools that offer PG Diploma in Management (PGDM) are up in arms against the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) for encroaching on their autonomy to admit students, fix fees and decide the curriculum.

The institutes allege that they had met the AICTE and tried to reason out with them over the matter but met with no response. The institutes, hence, have moved the Supreme Court against the AICTE notification.

But the HRD ministry clarified on Friday that institutes would have to intimate the respective state governments about their opting for CAT or MAT or the examination conducted by the state government.

The 400- odd private business schools contend that the new rules will affect the quality of their students. Also, it is economically unsustainable as, unlike the IIMs, these management institutes do not receive any government assistance.

The Uttar Pradesh government has already announced a cap of Rs. 91,000 per year for PGDM courses. BIMTECH director H. Chaturvedi said the “ faulty” across-the-board fee structure would have a crippling effect. Pankaj Gupta of the Integrated Academy of Management and Technology (Ghaziabad) said: “ Our PGDM course costs about Rs. 5.5 lakh for each student for two years.

How will we sustain the quality and the faculty with such a drastic reduction in fees?” Besides, the institutes point out that the quality of the curriculum of the management institutes is what distinguishes them and with this being handed over to state governments, the autonomy of institutes will definitely be curbed.

MDI Gurgaon director V. K. Gupta said: “ We take students through the all India CAT exam and therefore take the best applicants. But if tomorrow, the Haryana government was to decide on some other admission test, how will it ensure that quality students are admitted.” FICCI director general Rajiv Kumar, at an interaction with the institutes, pointed at the “ anomaly” of the AICTE notification: “ Since it is being claimed that the government has received thousands of complaints against private management institutes, they would like to engage with AICTE to sort it out,” he said.