Jadavpur University has convened a meeting next week to decide whether it would continue with its evening BTech programmes in three disciplines — civil, electrical and mechanical engineering — from the 2023-24 academic year as the AICTE has stopped recognising these programmes.
The All India Council for Technical Education now only recognises a programme that is of a four-year duration. JU's evening BTech courses are five-year programmes.
The AICTE’s handbook also says they recognise only programmes that are run during the day.
Continuing the evening programme disregarding what the AICTE has spelt out in its guideline won't be advisable, a JU official said.
Vice-chancellor Amitabha Datta said they would soon decide the fate of these courses.
A senior official of the university said revised guidelines in an AICTE handbook say: “Regular programmes are those where classes are held in face-to-face mode and the classes are held in normal day timings.”
The council sent this clarification to JU last month, said another university official.
Besides, the AICTE does not recognise a five-year BTech programme just in the way they disapproved of the three-year BTech programme that Calcutta University ran till 2014.
CU started a four-year BTech programme in 2015.
JU runs four-year BTech programmes in 16 disciplines, including civil, electrical and mechanical engineering.
These three disciplines, each consisting of 50 seats, have been running evening BTech programmes separately over the years for working professionals.
Students are admitted to the four-year programmes through Bengal JEE ranks.
But students are admitted to the evening programmes through an entrance test conducted by the university itself.
“The AICTE document suggests its recognition of the evening programme was effective till the 2019-20 academic year. But we have continued with the admission to the evening programme till the past academic year. Since the AICTE sent this clarification last month, we are unsure about continuing with the programme this academic year as well,” the official said. “A meeting would be held next week”.
What would be the fate of the students who have been admitted to the evening engineering programmes till last year?
“This would be discussed in the next week’s meeting,” the official told Metro.
Chiranjeeb Bhattacharya, the JU pro-vice-chancellor, said: “We have gone through the AICTE handbook on course approval (which states previous nomenclatures for what constitutes regular programmes have been dropped). We will take steps after holding a discussion among ourselves in view of the handbook on approval.”
The evening engineering programme at JU was introduced in the early 1980s.
The programme was mainly designed for working professionals so they could complete the BTech programme during an extended period.
The state JEE board stopped holding an entrance test for it in 2021 owing to logistical issues.
“We should take note of what the AICTE says. Or else students will suffer,” said a JU official.
Last updated on 23 Jul 2023
