The AICTE-CII Survey of Industry-Linked Technical Institutes 2013 awards were instituted in 2012. In the first year, only engineering institutes were in scope of survey. In 2013, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) expanded the scope of their study and launched the second edition of the survey in May. This year, the scope was substantially expanded to include all streams of engineering (nine specified and the rest covered under an “All Others” category) and also the disciplines of management, pharmacy and architecture. Uni-stream engineering institutes, such as ones offering only computer and IT, chemical or petro-engineering, were also eligible to participate if they fulfilled the other conditions of the basic criteria. Participation was also encouraged from emerging institutes in the engineering and management disciplines.
The survey was conducted online and the first level of basic scores calculated through algorithms set after extensive consultation and brainstorming with industry and academic experts. The findings show that institutes vary considerably in extent of their industry linkages, and that some forms of linkage are perhaps more easy to achieve than others. Involving industry representatives on an institute’s governance through participation in the board of governors or advisory councils is relatively achievable, for example. Institutes find it harder to demonstrate strong industry linkage in their ability to file patents and other intellectual property rights, or the extent to which they make technology transfers to industry.
A detailed report of the survey was released at the 3rd CII Global University-Industry Congress and the 5th Higher Education Summit jointly organised by AICTE and CII on 7-8 November, 2013 at New Delhi.