Did JNTU-Hyderabad put the cart before the horse?

Hyderabad: Have the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University- Hyderabad (JNTU-H) authorities put the cart before the horse by inviting applications for approval of affiliation for the academic year 2022-23?

Earlier, the university had issued circulars to affiliated private technical education institutions to carry out the process of the selection committee.

It may be mentioned here that the qualifications of the faculty members working in these institutions have to be ratified. For this a selection committee is being constituted with a university nominee as its member. The selection committee minutes (SCM) are to be sent to the university. The faculty whose qualifications are ratified in the SCM alone are eligible to work.

The SCM process is meant to ensure that these institutions have hired qualified faculty by following the AICTE norms as also the affiliation rules and regulations of the university. The JNTU-H has to conduct the SCM process ahead of every academic year before granting affiliation to these institutions. However, this year the university issued a circular, but it is yet to complete the process of SCM.

Speaking to The Hans India, the Telangana School's Technical Colleges Employees' Association (TSTCEA) State president A Santhosh Kumar said, "The process of SCM has not been completed. How come the university is going ahead with inviting applications to grant affiliation without verifying qualified faculty hired by the institutions?"

Considering the positive side that the university wishes to simultaneously take up the processes of affiliation and SCM, to save time, it is a glaring lapse and violation of the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) norms, Kumar said.

The reason, the affiliated institutions are yet to officially receive the AICTE extension of approval (EOA) for running various courses. How the university is going ahead without EOA from the apex technical educator needed an answer from the JNTU-H.