The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has directed the universities and institutions imparting technical education to implement the reservation policy for faculty and staff appointments. The apex body for educational institutions providing technical education said that all AICTE-approved universities and institutions must provide information about the reservation policy implemented in the last three years on priority.

“All AICTE-approved institutions are supposed to follow the reservation policy of the State or Central Government. Information regarding the appointment of manpower including faculty with regard to reservation policy implemented in the last 3 years needs to be provided in the formmhttps://tinyurl.com/5a95sbenon top priority basis so that the same could be communicated to the National Commission for Backward Classes,” reads the official notice.

A notice was released in this regard after a letter from the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) was sent to AICTE regarding the implementation of the reservation policy in the appointment of faculty and staff. The AICTE circular has been issued to all vice-chancellors of technical universities and all directors/principals of the approved institutions.

Meanwhile, the engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu have asked the AICTE to relax norms and allow faculty from Electrical Engineering (EEE) and Electronics and Communications Engineering (ECE) branches to teach Computer Science Engineering (CSE) courses following a short training programme as their is a shortage of qualified teachers. As per AICTE norms, teachers with postgraduate (PG) degrees in computer science-related branches can only take classes for CSE courses.

Approximately half the students selected CSE, IT, AI and data science, as well as machine learning courses, last year. However, only a handful of them opted for ME, MTech courses in computer science branches owing to the huge demand for BE, BTech graduates in the past few years.

The faculty shortage could be 20 to 30 percent this year, and it could also rise next year as colleges increase their intake in computer-related branches due to the rising demand, reported a leading news daily.

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