COVID-19 Lockdown: AICTE Chairman Anil Sahasrabudhe’s live session to address student queries

As the world has come to a standstill, many uncertainties have taken roots in the minds of the young student community. COVID-19 lockdown has forced students to be apprehensive about certain aspects of their academics like internships, entrance exams, placements, admissions, etc. In a lockdown situation like this, while people from all walks of life are making the most of the digital platforms or the social media platforms, the education arena is no exception. And what better can you expect to happen than to hear AICTE supremo connecting with Careers360 for a live session and addressing student queries including various challenges they are facing due to the shutdown. In a conversation with Maheshwar Peri, Founder Careers360, Anil Sahasrabudhe, AICTE Chairman clears the air about various such aspects.

Excerpts From the Live Session:

Q. Do you see the lockdown due to COVID-19 as the reason for the possible delay in the commencement of the academic session this year?

Anil Sahasrabudhe (AS): There may be a little delay in starting the academic classes for 2020, however, there are other areas that are getting affected much more than this. For instance, the internships, semester examinations, entrance exams like GATE and others have been either postponed or will be postponed, which were slated to be completed by April or May. Now, what I foresee is that either they will get delayed a little or may be changed to different formats. For instance, the physical internships have been converted to home-based internships. But we have a lot of time till mid-August to catch up and we will see how the processes further can be put on fast track to ensure that the classes begin within the framework. A little delay can be expected though, but not much. What can be done to begin the admission process in time here is to compress the activities in between the admission process.

Q. As you just spoke about compressing the activities in the admission process, can you please share some examples of areas where the time can be compressed to begin the session in time?

AS: Well, the processes like approvals to the colleges and universities giving affiliation to different colleges may be extended by a month or so, however, where we can save time and compress the activities is the counselling part. As we are aware that so far there would be several rounds of counselling with gaps from one round to the other. So the time between different rounds of counselling can be reduced or the total number of counselling rounds can also be reduced. If the majority of the seats are filled in the first round itself, then we don’t need many rounds for counselling.

Q. Is there any possibility that JEE Main and JEE Advanced will be a single exam this year due to the lockdown?

AS: I can not really say anything in this regard. The NTA, MHRD, IIT Council or the concerned bodies may come up with a suitable plan as per how the things unfold in the near future.

Q. Many colleges and universities have opened up admissions during the lockdown and are asking students to pay fee to reserve their seats. So, there is a lot of pressure in the student community in this regard. When there is a complete lockdown, how’s it that these institutions are asking for fee. What is your take on this?

AS: All the institutions and universities have been sent loud and clear message via circulars that they should not be charging any fee from the students in advance, especially in the light of the current situation. So, I would say it’s completely unethical and inhuman. This is not acceptable at all and such institutions should bear in mind that this will not be taken lightly by the AICTE as a regulator.

Q. We have found forged or fake documents with the name of NTA, CBSE, Uttar Pradesh Madyamik Shiksha Parishad, University of Mumbai, etc. during this lockdown period. What’s AICTE’s take as a regulator on such fake documents creating panic around?

AS: I have spoken to various ministries pertaining these issues and have requested them to send some information to all the stakeholders that everyone must depend on the authentic information that may be shared in an interview by the secretary level people or spokesperson, news channels or by the official websites of the respective organisations. Also, it’s important that no one should believe any information that is being circulated on Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, etc., but to check our websites regularly to have the authentic information about the new developments and decisions in the light of COVID-19. At the same time, it’s important that we don’t just forward such fake news or information.

Q. Apart from these circulars, has AICTE taken any steps to counter such activities or any provision wherein students can themselves verify from the regulators?

AS: In the circular itself there is a provision that if someone comes across such fake documents, then he/she can directly approach us to find out about its authenticity. Secondly, people can also report such instances via our official websites. Also, we have been filing complaints and lodging FIRs against such people and places.

Q. Educational institutions have begun online classes and the e-learning or online learning has become predominant in this lockdown period. But there are places in India where the internet penetration or the bandwidth is not upto the mark. How do students cope up with online learning with such challenges at such places?

AS: A report shared by the IIT Madras reflects that 85 percent of the registered candidates on online learning platforms like SWAYAM and NPTEL are easily able to access the online curriculum, however, 15 percent of them, who are remotely located, accessing the e-learning material online has been a big challenge. So, AICTE has been asked to find out colleges with good bandwidth and the ones which can support the students of the nearby colleges. I am happy to share that out of 10,000 technical colleges that come under the ambit of the AICTE, around 2500 have shown their willingness to support the students of the surrounding colleges. Therefore, students from the neighboring areas can come down to these college campuses and access or download these course lectures or online study material via hotspot. Out of these 15 percent students, 3or 4 percent may still not be able to reach or travel to these technical institutions. Such students also need not to worry, as we will have some kind of provision for them as well. They may be promoted to the next semester without any exam or have to take extra or separate classes and further take separate examinations if that’s needed at all. So, this way we want to take care of every single student during this critical time.

Q. The rules for the internships may have been relaxed at this juncture, however, there are two sets of students - the second and the third year students who have to do internships at a later stage and the final year students who have to mandatorily undergo internships at this moment before they could finally graduate. So, what happens to the final year students at this time?

AS: It has two aspects. The AICTE made mandatory internships effective since the last two years only. And thus, those who are in their third or fourth year, the internship was not mandatory. There may have been very few colleges four years ago that might have made internship mandatory. For the final year students, it’s more of a practical hands-on experience and not a curricular requirement. The curricular requirement came into effect since the last two years and is applicable for the third year or second year students. But this is not applicable for the final year students.

Secondly, for those where it was mandatory in the last four year, we had said that it’s not necessary that they should go to an organisation for their internship, but by solving industry problems at home through mentor-ship or guide will also be considered as an internship. Even the viva can also be taken online and their credit points can also be taken care of.

Q. There are organisations or corporations which are not capable of providing internships, as there is no industry connect or industry at all in their locality. How as a country and as a regulator we can address this, especially for students in such places while dealing with this regulation?

AS: We have broadened the definition of internship substantially. Normally, internship was assumed to be working with big MNCs or big organisations like TATA Steel, Maruti-Suzuki, TCS, Infosys, WIPRO, etc. Then the second level would include smaller companies. The third level is medium and small scale enterprises. Further, students can also do their internships at startups or be a part of the Government’s project Unnat Bharat Abhiyan( wherein the students have to go to rural areas and try to find out the challenges and solutions for those problems) – that is also considered as internship. The next level of internship is home-based internship where many IT organisations don’t want students to physically come and intern with them at their offices, but would give them challenges or problems to solve from home. Internship can also be at some educational institution or abroad.

Another important thing is that we have educational institutions to sign MOUs with at least 5 industries in the neighbourhood. Help from the alumni can also be sought for getting the MOUs done and then enabling more students to take up internships there.

AICTE has also developed a massive internship portal for matchmaking wherein all Tier-II, Tier-III colleges and students (Where it’s a challenge to find or get internship) can come onboard and can get internships through that. On the other hand, we have several companies onboard that platform. Over 1 million students register with us every year for internships, however, there are millions of small scale enterprises which, if join hands with us through this initiative, then we can offer 5 internships to each student.

Q. Some of the companies have withheld (put on hold) the internships or jobs they had offered during campus placement drive. What would be your advice to these companies and the students?

AS: To these companies, we would say not to withdraw the job offers they have made to the students. They may make straggled offers as per their requirements. This phenomenon is not new. This would happen earlier too wherein IT companies would make job offers to a large number of students during the campus recruitment, however, later they would stagger or put many of the students at bench. So, there are different ways and means through which the companies can take care of this.

Students should not worry. Their dedication and hardwork will ultimately pay. If they don’t give up and continue to persevere, no matter whether it takes a few months to get a job, they will win ultimately. I would also suggest not to restrict to get a job or to work in a corporate only. They can also think about launching their own start-ups which is more interesting and would also create jobs for others.

Q. What would happen to the last semester examinations which were slated for this time?

AS: At this moment, everything seems to be delayed a bit. Exams, internships, hiring, and other areas, there would be a little instability for sometime, which we have to accept. However, after sometime as the lockdown is lifted and normalcy is back on track, everything will be fine and we all will be on the same page.

Q. Most of the state boards plan their exams in a way that their students can sit for exams like JEE Main. However, while some states have finished with their exams, some are yet to. So, would there be a coordinated effort among the states to come up with a schedule that doesn’t hurt a student?

AS: The chief ministers, education ministers, the MHRD and the prime minister are having meetings on a regular basis and I think it’s important to brainstorm and come up with good ideas.

Q. Is there a possibility of any exam getting cancelled completely?

AS: NTA has already issued a notice for JEE Main. But the state level exams will be decided by the states only. As the model of admissions is different in different states, it is completely upto the states what they will come up with – what they find most fitting.

Q. In the last few years, the cost of education has gone up substantially. Is the government of India doing anything to make the education affordable so that more better students can afford it and thereby contribute to nation-building?

AS: A committee named Justice Srikrishna Committee set up at the instance of the Supreme Court by the MHRD through AICTE on the fee regulation. It gives details about all the fee that has to be borne by the educational institutions to offer a quality education – be it raising the student-faculty ratio, maintaining labs, equipment and so on and the upper limits have been decided by this committee. Different state governments take the last year’s expenditures by the institutions and allow them to charge a certain amount of fee. So, there is already a capping on the fee the institutions can charge. But the institutes say that the amount of fee permitted by the state government or by the fee regulatory committee at the state level, is not sufficient to run an institution and thus there is a balance which is to be maintained.

Secondly, we have observed that there are a large number of private universities in the states or deemed to be universities which charge a substantial amount of fee, which is way higher than the regulation, despite the fact that 100 percent of their seats are filled. So I think there is a contradiction here. On the other hand, we have government colleges where the fee is affordable and the bright minds (who can’t afford high fee) study there. Therefore, government colleges have 100 percent occupancy, while at private colleges a lot of seats remain vacant.

We have students who can afford high, moderate and low or minimal fees. Various social welfare departments or states also offer fee concessions to ensure that students from the SC/ST/PwD/OBC or from the EWS categories can afford education at an economic price. We have a mixed model of education, the corporate and the socialist.

Q. Since the admission cycle has begun, there are a lot of misleading advertisements which are outright lies and nothing else. What is the role of AICTE as a regulator to keep the students informed about what is correct and so that these liars are taken to task?

AS: One way for that is through the system where we ask all the institutions to submit truthfully (on AICTE portal and to public disclosure on their official websites) about their infrastructure, resources, facilities and other information mandatorily. The second way is through the accreditation process, the National Ranking Framework process wherein the institutions are given ranking and their statuses are announced in the public domain, so that the students are aware of the level of any college. And all this information is available to public disclosure.

Also, if someone identifies and writes to us about any such colleges that have given wrong or misleading information, we will take strong action against such institutions. We already have a process in place wherein after receiving complaints against any college, we ask them for explanation and if the explanation is not satisfactory enough, then we take strict action against them ranging from reducing the number of seats, to penalty or withdrawing the approvals, etc. depending on the level of discrepancy.

Q. There are around 1000 or a little more colleges which participate in the NIRF Ranking. So, how do you ensure that all colleges participate in the NIRF Ranking and what is the way forward to ensure that the data and information submitted to the NIRF is sanitized for any lies that would happen?

AS: By and large the data submitted to the NIRF is well sanitized, as we get to know that from various other sources like journals, publications and all. But yes, wherever there is suspicion, visits are paid, third party inspections are conducted and the data is sanitized. But no one can certainly claim that this data is 100 percent accurate and that’s the reason that we ask the institutes to put the information to public disclosure. So here anyone finding any discrepancy in that information can write to us and we will take care of it.

Now, last but not least, one of the other initiatives taken by AICTE is the accreditation wherein actual visits to the institutes are paid and all the data is sanitized. That’s why accreditation is mandatory. Those colleges which will not get accredited will loose their approvals. To help institutions perform better, raise their standards and get themselves accredited ,we have two schemes – Margdarshan and Margdarshak.

Q. As NIRF has been delayed for 2020. So, will it be out at all this year or will be cancelled?

Ans: Yes, it will come out, but the schedule has to be worked on by the concerned people. Also, ARIIA (Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievements) will also take place.

Q. A lot is being spoken about the placements, especially at the IITs and the NITs. So, anything which is brought to AICTE’s notice?

AS: Till January-February, the placements and interviews were going fine, but post that due to COVID-19, the process has been a little slow. In terms of the placements also, there may be some fluctuations too. But the major problem is that students are not getting their offer letters or are getting strangled offers. But in the future, as the effect of the virus is gone or the market resumes and as per the requirements of the organizations, everything will sorted and will come to normalcy.

Q. We observe that many of the institutes do not put the mandatory disclosures on their websites and even submit wrong data about placements unless someone verifies or audits, the real numbers don’t come out. So, how does one work on the placement data which normally is the most sensitive area for the student but the institutes claim it incorrectly?

AS: We have been taking action against it and wherever we find problems, we don’t allow such institutes to participate in the NIRF Ranking for the next 3 years, which is a strong deterrence. As we go along, we can verify the placement figures from many sources. For instance, one can establish a connect with the companies where the students are placed and get to know the real picture.

Further, a new society - India Ranking Society is about to be registered as a separate entity. With its establishment, I think the problems we are facing today will be wiped out in a year or two.

Q. We are moving towards online learning and online education, but students belonging to the states like Jammu & Kashmir and the Northeast have internet bandwidth constraints. Can we do something (as a nation) for students coming from these states?

AS: In J&K, the internet bandwidth is not a problem, it’s just a temporary restriction that hampers it at this time. In the Northeast as well, it’s just a few areas where the bandwidth is a challenge. So, for students from such areas also, we have three schemes to empower them. There are many institutes where there is no water, so we launched a water harvesting scheme to address the water scarcity in summers, the second is to provide funding for electricity for solar, wind energy, etc. The third one is to ensure the smooth internet connectivity through various means.

Q. Students suffer the most when it comes to refunding the fee by the institutions, as most institutions have very vague refund policies. It’s a painful process for the students as they end up paying at 2-3 colleges. Even in lieu of retaining students’ original certificates, some sort of blackmailing also happens. This practice doesn’t seem to go away. Is there something more that we can do to address this issue than to just ask students to lodge a complaint?

AS: This would happen more a few years back, but now there are only a few institutes against which we receive such complaints. Secondly, it is the case largely with the stand alone institutes which offer PG Diplomas in Management and not with the other colleges. As per the policy, June 30 of the admission year is the deadline for withdrawing the seats, so all students have to abide by that. But if students withdraw their seats after June 30, then we (as a regulator) will not intervene. However, if a seat is withdrawn before the deadline and any institute is found to be charging any extra fee from any student, except the Rs. 1000 as administrative charges, then very stringent action will be taken against such institute.

Q. Would you like to give any advice to the students?

AS: I feel we must utilize this time for learning through the various kinds of tools available online like MOOC, SWAYAM or others. I would also advise students to stay at home, stay safe and never let anything come in between you and learning.