New Delhi, June 13: Human resource development minister Arjun Singh has made it clear that private professional colleges will not be allowed to start new courses without adequate faculty and infrastructure.

The All India Council of Technical Education must put an end to the mushrooming of technical institutions that are doling out “substandard” education to students, Singh told the newly-constituted board of the AICTE this morning.

At the same time, he added, the council must encourage the growth of quality institutions.

Earlier this month, the AICTE had slashed student intake in private technical colleges by 38,000 because they did not have adequate and competent faculty members. It has given the erring institutions time till July 7 to change the state of affairs.

It is not usual for HRD ministers to attend AICTE meetings. Singh made an exception in view of the deteriorating quality of private technical institutions.

He made it clear to the council that it would now have to work with a new mandate to restore its credibility.

The minister expressed concern over the unbridled growth of private technical institutions between 2000 and 2004. Engineering colleges alone went up from 776 in 2000 to 1,343 in 2004, while the number of engineering students shot up from 1.87 lakh to 4.77 lakh. Engineering is just one of the multiple courses the institutions offer.

The state governments have gradually withdrawn from higher education since liberalisation, leaving students at the mercy of private institutions that charge exorbitant fees but do not provide any of the promised facilities.