New AICTE norms turning faculty jobless

​Hyderabad: Differences between the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad (JNTUH) and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) over the eligibility norms for the recruitment of teaching faculty are giving jitters to scores of teachers in the private engineering colleges.

According to sources, most faculty members serving from one year to 15 years in the Computer Sciences department have been receiving pink slips from the private college managements under pressure from the JNTUH.

Speaking to The Hans India, a senior faculty member from a private engineering college, said the AICTE vide its gazette notification dated June 10, 2016, notified the eligibility criteria for the appointment of teaching faculty in the degree and diploma institutions of technology in the country.

As per the notification, the AICTE said that MCA, MSc in Mathematics, Physics, Electronics, Computer Science and allied subjects with ME, MTech and PhD in Computer Science, Information Technology are eligible to teach Computer Sciences, Information Technology, and Engineering courses.

That apart, MSc (Electronic Science) and ME (ET&T) qualification as well as Master of Science in Information Technology (MSc IT) to teach CSE programme. However, when there were several doubts expressed over its notification, the AICTE had given a clarification on the same.

According to the clarification given, existing incumbents recruited as a faculty with the basic minimum qualifications like MCA, MSC, MTech as notified in its extraordinary gazette published on June 6, 2016, are eligible. 

In addition to the above, those persons, who have secured admission to these courses before publication of the AICTE gazette dated March 13, 2010, are to be considered as eligible for the Career Advancement Scheme (CAS) for direct recruitment, subject to fulfillment of other eligibility criteria and higher qualifications prescribed, if any, for various teaching posts.

In line with the AICTE norms, the JNTUH had notified the same as eligibility criteria for the purpose of granting affiliation to the private engineering colleges from the academic year 2017-18. The JNTUH had started the process of granting affiliation to the private engineering colleges from February this year. As part of the same, it had formed ratification committees to validate the qualification of the teaching staff working in 200 and odd private engineering colleges.

It was against this backdrop that the committees visiting engineering colleges to ratify the qualifications of the private engineering college teaching staff have been refusing to recognise the AICTE norms and to ratify the appointment of existing faculty with MCA along with PhD qualifications. 

This has put the private engineering colleges under pressure to get qualified staff to give termination orders to those working for years in their colleges. Otherwise, they will be losing their affiliation with the AICTE, the sources said.

The university authorities, however, deny the PhDs obtained by some of the candidates are not from departments of technology but departments of sciences. “The complaints of universities forcing private colleges to terminate their faculty is baseless,” a senior JNTU-H official said.