Dual accreditation has become mandatory for institutes in Maharashtra offering courses in engineering, pharmacy, hotel management etc. According to new UGC regulations, such institutes will have to get an approval from the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). On the other hand the programmes offered by them have to be approved by the National Board of Accreditation (NBA).
According to these regulations, the process of approval which was earlier done by the AICTE, has been merged with the affiliation process and will be done by the universities. An official stated that, the state can now control the mushrooming of colleges and the excess seats in these institutes which go vacant every year.
Senior officials are doubtful about the level of transparency over the implementation of the new policy. An official said that, the AICTE’s approval process was online and was transparent, but now it will be difficult to monitor applications with individual universities having their own independent processes
