Like a bolt from the blue, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has announced the non-university institutes cannot offer distance learning programmes in the country. Tilling off the previous decision of the Distance Education Council, it is now declared that only universities are now eligible in providing distance education, not the stand-alone institutes.
By offering the facility of distance education for diplomas in management courses, many biz-schools had been prospering overwhelmingly. But, given that UGC will not extend their recognition, all of this functioning will cease to operate.
A notification in the UGC gazette in the end week of last month had made the decision public:The minimum standards of instructions for the grant of first degree through non-formal/distance education in the faculties of arts, humanities, fine arts, music, social science, commerce and science.
The recommendations to regulate distance education in India by a committee headed by Prof N R Madhav Menon were what sailed this decision.
“Certificates or diplomas or post-graduate diplomas awarded by the standalone institutions, which also have been approved by the Commission based on the policies of the then Distance Education Council, of the Indira Gandhi National Open University, for running open and distance learning programmes till the academic session as specified in recognition letters already issued at the level of the Commission, shall remain valid programmes in the field of open and distance learning mode of education and once the recognition period to these standalone institutions ceases, such institutions cannot offer open and distance learning programmes,” the notification stated.
“These institutes can continue offering distance education courses if they are converted to university or deemed to be university, failing which, the Commission shall not accord any approval to the open and distance learning programmes of standalone institutions.
“Standalone institutes were free from university regulation. As they offered diploma courses, they did not fall under the ambit of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) too. Many institutes hence started offering distance education courses and made a lot of money. Soon, there was management in hospital administration, forest management, agriculture and plantation management, etc.,” said a former director of the Institute of Open and Distance Learning, Mumbai University. In Maharashtra alone, there will be dozens of institutes that will be getting affected.
With the new rules in exercise, the the jurisdiction that universities can operate within will face a lot of restriction. A state government officer from the higher education department said, “For instance, Pune University has a centre in Belapur. That will now have to close down.”
In addition to this announcement, UGC also stated that examination centres shall be located in government schools such as Navodaya Vidyalaya, Kendriya Vidyalaya, Sainik school, etc, including approved affiliated colleges under the university system in the country and any private organisations or unapproved higher educational institutions must be kept excluded when it come down to conduct of examination. All examination proceedings will have to be recorded and archived for a decade.
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