Lok Sabha Question No. 102 (STARRED), answered on 2015-12-07
Subject: Kaw Committee
Ministry: HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: MEENAKASHI LEKHI, VINOD KUMAR BOIANAPALLI

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION

## LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 102 TO BE ANSWERED ON 07.12.2015

Kaw Committee

*102. SHRIMATI MEENAKASHI LEKHI: SHRI B. VINOD KUMAR:

Will the Minister of HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state: (a) whether the Government has constituted an Expert Committee under the Chairmanship of  Shri  M.K.  Kaw  to  review  the  working  of  the  All  India  Council  of  Technical  Education (AICTE) and make suitable recommendations for improving higher technical education in the country; and if so, the details thereof; (b) whether the said Committee has submitted its report to the Government; (c) if so, the details thereof along with the salient features of the recommendations made by the Committee; and (d) the follow-up action taken thereon?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT

(Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani)

(a) to (d): A statement is laid on the Table of the House.

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## STATEMENT AS REFERRED TO IN PART (a) TO (d) OF THE REPLY TO LOK SABHA STARRED  QUESTION  NO.  102  TO  BE  ANSWERED  ON  07.12.2015  ASKED  BY SHRIMATI MEENAKASHI LEKHI AND SHRI B. VINOD KUMAR REGARDING KAW COMMITTEE

(a) & (b): Yes,  Madam.    The  AICTE  Review  Committee  was  constituted  under  the Chairmanship  of  Sh.  M.  K.  Kaw,  retired  Secretary,  Department  of  Higher  Education, Ministry  of  Human  Resource  Development  to  conduct  a  review  of  the  present  status  of AICTE  and  suggest  restructuring  and  re-organizing  of  AICTE  for  attaining  even  better performance to meet the desired objectives and to suggest amendments to the AICTE Act, 1987 and the Rules and Regulations made there under. The committee conducted various meetings and consulted various authorities/stakeholders/public. After considering the facts and issues, the Committee submitted its report with entitled 'Technical Education in India: A Futuristic Scenario' to the ministry on 12.06.2015.

(c): The following are the recommendations made by the Committee to strengthen the AICTE:

- (i) AICTE should be converted into a constitutional autonomous apex authority.
- (ii) AICTE  may  function  as  a  facilitating,  mentoring  agency  rather  than regulatory body.
- (iii) AICTE  should  focus  attention  on  research,  innovation,  business  startups and patenting.
- (iv) Third party rating should be used as the fulcrum of regulation. Norms shall measure outcomes rather than be obsessed with physical inputs.
- (v) AICTE  should  improve  the  functioning  of  the  sub-standard  technical institutions  with  the  help  of  senior  faculty  drawn  from  higher  technical institutions.
- (vi) There  should  be  a  provision  for  undergraduate  students  to  undergo internship on the job training with industry.
- (vii) The  National  Board  of  Accreditation  should  be  the  umbrella  authority charged with the power to recognize accreditation agencies.
- (viii) There should be a National Testing Service which conducts a Joint Entrance Examination  for  engineering  courses  and  a  Common  Admission  Test  for management courses. Exit tests like GATE shall also be made universal.
- (ix) AICTE  should  have its permanent  establishment  of  manpower  and experienced persons from industry should be taken on deputation.
- (x) Affiliation should be phased out within a decade and AICTE should regulate, mentor and develop technical institutions.
- (xi) Distance  and  life-long  education  should  be  promoted  with  the  help  of information  technology  such  as  MOOCs  and  other  emerging  blended learning practices.
- (xii) Technical and Vocational education should be dovetailed into one another by a liberal regime of transfer of credits between institutions.
- (xiii) MHRD should enhance the plan allocation of funds to AICTE.
- (xiv) AICTE  goal  should  be  to  establish  India  as  a  technical  education  superpower within the next decade.

(d): The  recommendations  of  AICTE  Review  Committee  have  been  discussed  on 18.06.2015  in  a  meeting  of  the  experts.  The  reports  of  Review  Committee  along  with  the opinions/comments  of  the  experts  were  also  placed  on  the  website  for  the  comments  of general  public. Some of the recommendations of the Review Committee are implemented based on the opinions obtained from the experts and the public as below:

- i. Ministry  has  launched  National  Institutional  Ranking  Framework  on 29 th  September, 2015 to empower a larger number of Indian Institutions to  participates  in  the  global  ranking  and  create  a  significant  impact Nationally and Internationally. This framework outlines a methodology to rank institutions across the country.
- ii. In case of Vocational Education, all the Technical Institutions have been an  active  participation  in  adopting  the  Choice  Based  Credit  System (CBCS), which allows transfers of credit between Institutions/Universities.
- iii. Ministry  is  formulating  SWAYAM,  a  platform  for  delivering  high quality  MOOCs  courses,  free  of  cost,  covering  all  subjects  from  the school to higher education level including the technical education.

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