Section 5 in All India Council for Technical Education (Categorization of Standalone Institutions for Grant of Graded Autonomy) Guidelines, 2019
5. Dimensions of Autonomy for Category-II Standalone Institutions.
- 5.1. Standalone Institutions may start a new course/programme in disciplines that form a part of its existing academic framework without approval of the AICTE 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, with information to the AICTE. However, number of new courses and divisions shall not exceed 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.5.2Standalone Institutions may start skill courses, consistent with the National Skills Qualification Framework, without approval of the AICTE, consistent with the approved nomenclature of AICTE.5.3Standalone 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 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.5.4Standalone Institutions shall be free to admit foreign students on merit, subject to a maximum of twenty percent, over and above of 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.5.5Standalone 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 Institution. The AICTE shall be informed about the incentive structure within thirty days of approval by the Board of Governors of the Institution.5.6Mandatory disclosure of information & periodic review of autonomy:Standalone institutions will adopt the AICTE Model Governance Structure and maintain utmost transparency in its functioning. All information relating to management, finance, tuition and other fees, data relating to intake/enrolment/placement and faculty shall be provided to AICTE as per its norms.AICTE shall periodically review the functioning of Standalone Institutions which have been granted autonomy at least once in 5-years. The autonomy granted shall be contingent upon the principle of accountability and transparency and the accreditation as applicable should be valid for the entire duration of the course for which the students are admitted in each year.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.
