B schools accuse AICTE of undue interference

Our Management Bureau in New Delhi

It was not one of those low-profile seminars. In a charged atmosphere, there were accusations flying thick and fast at an interactive seminar organised by the Association of Indian Management Schools (AIMS), on AICTE norms and conditions vis-a-vis the problems of running management schools.

While the AIMS members accused the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) of going beyond its brief and interfering unnecessarily, AICTE member Prof Vinayshil Gautam said it was really a case of management schools wanting to run with the hare and hunt with the hound, charging them with using their ‘networking skills’ to thwart proper implementation of the norms.

Amidst all this, Dr AR Kidwai, Rajya Sabha member and chief guest at the seminar, offered a practical solution of according management education independent professional status through a Parliamentary Bill to facilitate the setting of a separate council to set standards for practice and ethics, on the lines of professions like medicine, engineering and chartered accountancy.

Dr Kidwai made a strong plea for taking steps to standardise and fix norms for professionalising management education in the country. For the development of any profession, practitioners of the science have a major role to play and not bureaucrats, he said. The development of management studies is crucial in order to be able to compete as a global power. The core of success in any activity depends on management principles, in areas as diverse as marketing, finance, resources or raw materials. Where we have failed is in giving due emphasis to management, he said and we need to correct that.

A majority of the speakers pointed fingers at the AICTE for being bureaucratic and interfering, and creating problems due to unrealistic norms and conditions. The issues that came up for strong criticism included: Norms on building and space; locking up of endowment fund of Rs 20 lakh for 10 years; yearly renewal of approved programmes; faculty-student ratio; pressurising institutes having post graduate diploma in business management (PGDBM) courses to convert to MBA programmes and stopping of approvals for PGDBM courses since 1998.

Reacting strongly, Mr Gautam lamented the fact that the AICTE was being used as a punching bag. “This is really a case of the AICTE being more sinned against than sinning,” he said, adding that, “The AICTE is what we have made it.” Pointing out the lapses in the system he said the problem was really one of implementation. He said what was thwarting proper implementation was, “The networking systems that come into play,” whenever any ‘harsh’ steps are contemplated by the AICTE. “Interventions and compromises are common and schools and promoters cry foul only when things don’t go their way,” he said.

Dr Jagjit Singh, chairman, AIMS Delhi chapter, said it was more a case of strangulation rather than regulation. He stressed the need for AICTE to deal with the problems at a macro level, facilitate management education, broaden the affiliation parameters and introduce single-window clearance for new courses in place of the present 8-step procedure, that makes the process of getting sanction for a college a very troublesome process, involving separate visits by teams of the AICTE, university, state government, besides other procedures. The cumbersome process can be reduced to a single-window approval by setting up a committee of the AICTE, state govt and university who can make a single visit and approve the courses, he said.

Prof Shefali Gautam, director, Shiva Institute of Management Studies, said the AICTE was itself indulging in contradictory decisions by first allowing institutes to run PGDBM programmes and then forcing them to convert to MBA programmes.

“This was a question of outdated, difficult-to-modify MBA programmes as opposed to current and continuously upgraded PGDBM courses. In order to compete it is necessary to update programmes rapidly to cater to the industrial/business requirements.
In a university ambience this is a cumbersome process. That is why IIMs are not interested in converting to MBA programmes,” she said, arguing that not only should PGDBM courses be made free and autonomous but also be given proper incentives to upgrade their quality. In fact, the privatisation of education has brought out competence with a competitive spirit, she said.