The technical education regulator says some 10,500 institutions, including business schools and engineering colleges, won’t be physically inspected for any approval, whether academic, infrastructure, or in allied areas, from this year onward.

The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has told institutions to opt for self-disclosure instead of depending on education invigilators. The move, authorities and institutions believe, will improve mutual trust and make education regulation ‘light but tight’. It is also likely to improve accountability at the institutional level and help education players enjoy more freedom.

“Like the labour reforms that ended inspector raj, this reform will end red-tape in the professional education regulation space. There will be virtual scrutiny instead and it will end harassment and build trust,” said an official familiar with the development requesting anonymity.

AICTE has already informed education providers about the move in a recent meeting and a formal notification is expected soon, said the official.

“We will have a system where self-disclosure will become more important and significant. That is how transparency and accountability will carry more weight than inspection raj, which used to happen earlier,” AICTE chairman Anil Sahasrabudhe told administrators of more than 100 institutions in a video conference. Mint has accessed the interaction’s proceedings.

“We will have no physical inspection of the institutions in the future. Faculty experts visiting institutions claiming something and institutions saying something else will be history,” Sahasrabudhe said.

“Education and the economy go hand in hand. We need to believe in our system, the institutions, and those who run it,” said Sahasrabudhe. Institutions should show accountability and education should be affordable, he said.