The newly appointed government panel has recommended to conduct a single entrance exam for admission to all the engineering institutes under All India Council for Technical Education and a common examination for all business schools. The panel has also recommended to set up a National Testing Service who will conduct the exam.
Further the panel has proposed that it should be an Independent Body seeking the support of CBSE or outsourcing the work to other agencies.
They have also suggested that the seats which remain vacant on successful completion of the counselling procedure "shall not be treated as a management quota" rather they should be used to offer admission to the students on the waiting list.
AICTE review committee Report Reads
In the present time around 11000 students inclusive of both Engineering and Management institutions are affiliated to AICTE. If reports of AICTE review committee are to be believed then There shall be a single National Testing Service which shall conduct a Joint Entrance Examination for engineering courses and a Common Admission Test for management courses. The Institutes whether run by universities, deemed universities, state government-run universities, private universities et.c will offer admission to the students on the basis of the Result. The seats which fall vacant after the completion of counselling sessions shall not be treated as a management quota, but shall be used to accommodate students on the waiting lists of these examinations.
The recommendations have been posted on the website mygov.in to seek the views of stakeholders.
AICTE should be transformed into an "apex constitutional authority"
The report prepared by the committee suggested that AICTE should be transformed into an "apex constitutional authority" to promote orderly, integrated and coordinated development of technical education...technical education should be a fundamental right and emphasis was also laid on doing away with the affiliation system within a decade.
Why the recommendations came so late
The recommendations have come after two years after the Ministry of HRD then headed by Kapil Sibal had proposed to have a similar national testing agency to conduct various kinds of national level entrance examinations. A task force was also constituted to take the proposal forward, but little was heard about it since then.
After its was recognized that there is an urgent need for restructuring and strengthening the AICTE to look after the challenges, the Human Resource Development Ministry set up a review committee led by former education secretary M K Kaw in November 2014.
