Union Human Resource Development Minister Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ launched several initiatives of All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE)in New Delhi today. It includes Facilitation through Margadarshan and Margadarshak, Model Curriculum for Diploma Courses, Waste Management Accelerator for Aspiring Women Entrepreneurs (WAWE Summit 2019) and 360-degree Feedback of Faculty.

Speaking on the occasion Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal said that ‘WAWE Summit 2019’ is a great initiative because women have skills in their hands and it will further empower and motivate them. The Ministerinformed that the WAWE Summit will be held in November-December 2019. It will be jointly organized by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and Institute of Waste Management (IIWM) at Jaipur. He further said that this conclave will be part of a series of activities to encourage entrepreneurship amongst young graduates.  

 

The Union Minister said that we need to be at top in World rankings and the path to take our technical education to the top in the world is made easier through suchinitiatives. It is necessary to create new courses to prepare students for better understanding in this competitive age and, Model Curriculum for Diploma Coursesis an effort in this direction.

He further said that Facilitation through Margadarshan and Margadarshak is also a very good initiative in which the topmost institutions will mentor other institutions, so that they can improve their rankings and follow best practices of the mentor institute. The Minister also informed that the teachers (Margdarshak) will also be guiding other institutions for their betterment.

Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal highlighted that 360 degree feedback of faculty scheme will increase the quality of education. This scheme will encourage both students and teachers. The Minister hoped that these schemesare launched to improve quality of education and will further contribute in creating New India.

Facilitation through Margadarshan and Margadarshak

A] Margadarshan: Under this scheme, institutions having good accreditation record / highly performing institutions are supposed to mentor relatively newer 10 - 12 potential institutions. Best practices in teaching learning process followed in mentor institute are diffused to mentee institutions. These institutions are also provided funding uptoRs. 50 lakhs (Rupees Fifty Lakhs Only) per institution over a period of three years in instalments for carrying out various activities like trainings, workshops, conferences and travel. Following number of institutions are selected under Margadarshan.

Sl. No.	FY of sanctioning Mentor Institutions	No. of Institutions	Amount Sanctioned
1	2017-18	04	0.84 Crores
2	2018-19	10	1.53 Crores
3	2019-20	26	6.45 Crores
	Total No. of Institutes	40	8.82 Crores
	Mentee Institutions	About 400 Institutions

 

B] Margdarshak: Under this scheme, mentor teachers or Margdarshaks who are either servingorsuperannuated butwilling and motivated with good knowledge of accreditation and who can devote adequate time to make required visits to these Institutions are identified. These Margdarshaks will regularly visit to the mentee institutions, stay on their campus and guide them for their improvement in quality so that institutions are able to get accreditation by NBA.

Selection of Mentors: Total 942 applicationswere received from working / superannuated Professors of IITs / NITs which were further screened and finally 296 mentors are identified.

Selection of Mentee Institutes: In the 1^st phase, institutes having student enrolment of 70% or more and willing to get mentoring through AICTE’s Margadarshaks, but are not yet accredited are provided Margadarshaks. Remaining institutes can be covered in the subsequent phases. Willingness of mentee institutes is taken. However, response giving willingness to be a Mentee institute has been received from 400 institutes only to date.

Criteria for Margadarshaksare:

• Must be a Ph.D.
• Should be from Technical Education (Engg.) Domain
• Min experience 20 years; Not less than 5 years in academicsAnd
• Designation not less than Professor if from AICTE approved institution Or
• Not less than Associate Professor if from IIT/NIT And
• Minimum 10 Research Publications Or
• Minimum 05 Ph.D. Guidance Or
• Minimum 2 Patents Or
• Minimum 2 Books written And
• Member NBA visit team / NAAC visit team Or
• Participated in accreditation of his/her own department at least for 2 cycles
• Persons from industry with passion for education & who are NBA/NAAC team members
• Applicants should have time to visit institutes

Margadarshak tenure: Initially for 6 months. Extendable on year on year basis

As envisioned, about 2/3rd programs in mentored technical institutions are expected to be accredited through the NBA before 2022. There are approximately 3200 institutes with 70 percent or more enrolment.

 

Model Curriculum for Diploma Courses

AICTE, fully aware of the fact that diploma education should make students job ready faster, in consultation with its All India Board of Technician Education (AIBTE) constituted subject-wise team of 3-4 experts drawn from academia and industry to prepare model curriculum for Diploma Courses in seven disciplines. This Model Curriculum has come up after several meetings and thoughtful deliberations of experts. It has been prepared while keeping in view the latest industry trends and market requirements. Salient features of Model Curriculum for Diploma Courses in Engineering & Technology are as follows:

• Reduced number of credits.
• Two-week mandatory Induction Program for students has been designed and has to be given at the beginning of the course.
• Introduction of credit course on Sports & Yoga in first semester to inculcate the habit of physical and mental fitness right at the start.
• Well defined learning objectives & outcomes for each course.
• Inclusion of courses on socially relevant topics. Course on Indian Constitution, Environmental Science & Essence of Indian Knowledge and Tradition have been embedded in the curriculum as audit course.
• Built-in flexibility to the students in terms of program elective and open elective courses.
• Two mandatory internships to equip the students with practical knowledge and provide them exposure to real time industrial environments. Further, in one of the internships, option is provided to do internship in social sector/Govt. initiated social schemes/NGOs etc.  AICTE has made 7-10 weeks summer internships mandatory in the new curriculum which will equip the students with practical understanding and training about industry practices in a suitable industry or organization.
• Course on Entrepreneurship and Startups to encourage entrepreneurial skills.
• To the extent possible, the weightage of theory and practical (in terms of contact hours) has been balanced.
• A list of experiments, with the objective clearly spelt out, is specified for each lab course.
• Provision of organizing at least one expert lecture per semester for each branch by inviting resource persons from domain specific industry.

 

360-degree Feedback of Faculty

Teachers play the key role of developing the most important national resource (human resource), the young talent of students that will define the future of our country. As per the recommendations of AICTE, Ministry of Human Resources Development gave the mandate to the 7th Pay Commission, of understanding certain key aspects of teacher’s activities and its impact as perceived by other key stake holders of the college education process.

AICTE 7^thPay Regulation defines the process of collecting the 360-degree Feedback Data that will be submitted by the education institutes. It starts by first establishing a data framework that maps Teachers, Students and Subjects/courses to capture the data at source through online mechanism.

The process begins by self reporting of the Teaching Process and other Contributions to the Society by the teachers themselves. This will attract a value of 25 and 10 marks respectively.  The head of the department where the teacher works would also report the Departmental Activities performed by the teacher that would attract 20 marks. The Principal of the institute would further add Institute Activities for 10 marks and the Annual Confidential Report (ACR) for 10 marks for every teacher. A very important part of the feedback is added by the students giving objective as well as personal experience by answering 14 questions to be graded on a scale of 1 to 5. This feedback will attract 25 points making complete 100 % feedback. (Total = 25 + 10 +20 +10 +10 +25 = 100%). In order to facilitate this process AICTE in association with Smart Cookie Rewards Pvt. Ltd (having MoU with AICTE) has developed an online Framework to collect the feedback data.

The system will further summarize & share the collected data for the Department/Institute/College management for giving increments and promotions for the teachers. Also, AICTE will provide regulatory compliance to ensure transparency and fairness of the process.

‘Wawe Summit 2019’

(Waste Management Accelerators for Aspire Women Entrepreneurs)

It will be the largest gathering of young women students to promote entrepreneurship in waste management and providing alternatives to single use plastic carry bags. Indian Institute of Waste Management (IIWM)&All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) will be registering the interested participation and guiding them to connect from “Start Up India to Stand Up India”

• Theme: Make your own bag – empowering women to take up income generation activity and entrepreneurship in waste management through making a business out of this record creating concept.
• This conclave will be part of a series of activities to encourage entrepreneurship amongst young graduates.

Secretary, Department of Higher Education Shri R. Subrahmanyam, Chairman, AICTE Dr. Anil Sahasrabudhe and other senior officials of Ministry and AICTE were also presented on this occasion. 

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