The editorial, “Fraudulent duplication” (May 13), is an incisive wake-up call to the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to set its house in order. It is intriguing that a regulatory body for technical education, that grants approval through an online portal, is unable to put in place a system to check this “fraudulent multiplicity”.
In addition to such regulatory laxity, the intention of engineering colleges to adopt such questionable practices shames professional education at a time when the world is looking at India’s demographic dividend with an air of positivity. The AICTE should introduce a ‘Unique Identification Number’ to keep a check on such unfair practices failing which engineering education will not only suffer from its existing faculty vacancy syndrome but also from a ghost faculty syndrome. These twin bombs must be defused by the AICTE immediately.
S. Vaidhyasubramaniam,Thanjavur
