Every year, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) grants its approval to selected institutes among several applicants, after their physical inspection. However, this year, owing to the coronavirus pandemic, the process has been made online. This comes at a time when all the education bodies are looking for new and viable solutions due to the standstill that has been enforced for safety.

AICTE has gone a step ahead and decided to conduct a virtual inspection of institutes that apply for approval. Approval related activities for the academic year 2020-21 will be carried out online. AICTE has also appealed to the Supreme Court of India to extend the date for the grant of approval up to June 15, 2020.

Approved Institutes which applied for Extension of Approval  (EoA) without any changes from last year’s approval, based on self-disclosure, has been granted an extension. All the EoA and Letters of Approval will be uploaded on the AICTE portal from April 30. It has also instructed institutes to install Microsoft Teams Software and familiarize themselves with the modalities.

“AICTE shall take necessary steps in granting approvals to the rest of the applications from the existing Institutions and for the establishment of New Institutions, using online meeting platforms for the conduct of Scrutiny/ EVC through Microsoft Team,” says AICTE for remaining applications and new applications.