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AICTE has released new guidelines for the academic year 2020-21 which state that new courses can only be introduced in emerging areas such as artificial intelligence and robotics in engineering and technology courses.
As per the new guidelines released by AICTE, engineering and technology colleges can only come up with new courses in emerging areas such as Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, and not in the usual fields once 2020-21 academic session commences. The guidelines have also emphasised upon a rule which has already been in place since 2018 which restricts institutes from adopting names which give them the same abbreviations as some of the premier institutes such as IITs and IIMs. For instance, new institutes cannot name themselves in a manner that abbreviates to IIT, IIM, NIT and this rule will help prevent confusion among students.
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All institutes are required to add their unabbreviated name on their handbook and website. The guidelines were issued on 4 February, 2020 and also have laid down the benchmark regarding approval of technical institutes and their permissions renewal for 2020-21. They also look at addressing the oversupply in engineering which leads to hundreds of seats being vacant every year. The guidelines also restrict the establishment of new pharmacy courses, “for two years beginning from 2020-21.
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The guidelines also mention that institutes which are looking forward to increase the intake and start additional courses can only do so in “emerging areas. Examples of emerging areas are Internet of Things [IoT], Blockchain, robotics, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, data sciences, cybersecurity, augmented reality/virtual Reality (AR/VR), 3D printing and design.
