Section 4 in All India Council for Technical Education (Categorization of Standalone Institutions for Grant of Graded Autonomy) Guidelines, 2019
4. Dimensions of Autonomy for Category-I Standalone Institutions.
- 4.1. Standalone Institutions shall be eligible for grants and no inspections by the AICTE shall be required for the same.4.2Standalone Institutions may start new courses/programmes in disciplines that form a part of its existing academic framework with the nomenclature of Diploma, Post Diploma Certificate, Post Graduate Certificate and Post Graduate Diploma in new and innovative areas that are relevant to local, national or international needs. However, information has to be uploaded in AICTE Web Portal and upon uploading the same; such courses shall be treated deemed to be recognized by AICTE. However, number of new courses and divisions shall not exceed the number of NBA Accredited courses in the given cycle and subject to maintaining all AICTE norms and standards. Fellow Programme shall not be in the ambit of Autonomy, which shall be approved by AICTE as per norms.4.3Standalone Institutions may start skill courses, consistent with the National Skills Qualification Framework, without approval of the AICTE, consistent with the approved nomenclature of AICTE.4.4Standalone Institutions may open research parks, incubation centres, institute society linkage centres, in self-financing mode, either on its own or in partnership with private partners, without approval of AICTE. However, in all such arrangements, the ownership of all immovable property and that component of movable property procured through the resources of the Institution shall remain with the Standalone Institution.4.5Standalone Institutions, subject to the Rules, Regulations and Guidelines of Government of India, may hire, without approval of the AICTE, foreign faculty having taught at any institution appearing in top five hundred (500) of any of the world renowned ranking frameworks, such as the Financial Times (FT) Global MBA Ranking or the QS Ranking, up to twenty percent over and above on their total sanctioned faculty strength. Standalone Institutions will have the freedom to hire foreign faculty on "tenure/contract" basis as per the terms and conditions approved by their Governing Council/Statutory bodies.4.6Standalone Institutions shall be free to admit foreign students on merit, subject to a maximum of twenty percent, over and above the strength of their approved domestic students. However, AICTE Norms, Standards and rules of Govt. of India such as Study in India are applicable in this regard.4.7Standalone Institutions, while following the pay scales as laid down by the AICTE, shall build in an incentive structure to attract talented faculty, with the condition that the incentive structure shall have to be paid from their own revenue sources and not from AICTE or Government funds. The such incentive structure shall be strictly merit based with clearly defined, transparent and objective criteria and shall not be universal. It must necessarily be approved by the Board of Governors of the Standalone Institution. The AICTE shall be informed about the incentive structure within thirty days of approval by the Board of Governors of the Standalone Institution.4.8Standalone Institutions may engage in academic collaborations with foreign institutions in the top 500 of Financial Times (FT) Global MBA Ranking or QS Ranking or top 200 of discipline specific ranking in Financial Times (FT) Global MBA Ranking or QS Ranking without approval of the AICTE.4.9Standalone Institutions may offer courses in the Open and Distance Learning mode, without approval of the AICTE, provided it satisfies all the norms and standards laid down by AICTE from time to time.4.10Standalone Institutions shall be exempted from annual monitoring of their institutions and learning resource centre(s) as stipulated under AICTE Approval Process Handbook (APH) as amended /modified from time to time, except when there is substantive evidence of their not meeting basic minimum criteria or of irregularities or malpractices.4.11In case there is any external review required by the AICTE under any statute or executive order, then it would be sufficient that the institution sends a report to the AICTE in a prescribed review format.The institution should also mandatorily disclose the period of accreditation and its category status. Once the accreditation period is over, the status of autonomy automatically stands withdrawn unless institute gets itself accredited.
