Distance education courses: Delay in UGC communiqué hits admission
Kolkata: With the universities associated with distance education mode of learning yet to receive any guideline from University Grants Commission (UGC) on how they should go forward with the admission process, and as the varsities have not yet received any communication from UGC's Distance Education Bureau (DEB) about whether they can admit students for the year 2021, uncertainty looms large over this mode of learning in Bengal.
UGC's new regulation that had come into effect in 2018 had stated that only institutions with NAAC grade A plus (score of 3.26 or above on a scale of 4) would be permitted to offer programmes in distance mode. Bengal was allowed relaxation with the HRD ministry stating that DEB's guideline will not come into effect for Bengal before the academic session 2019-20.
"If the 3.26 score comes into effect then no university in the state except Netaji Subhas Open University (that offers both UG and PG) can continue to impart distance education. There have been some media reports that varsities with score of 3.01 will be allowed to continue but there has been no official communication from DEB. So open and distance education in the state is in total uncertainty," said a senior university official in the state that offers distance education.
Rabindra Bharati University, Burdwan University, North Bengal University, Kalyani University and Vidyasagar University are among the state universities that offer distance education in post-graduate level (PG). RBU accounts for the highest number of distance education students with 20,000 students seeking admission every year.
Under normal circumstances, the admission process in distance education is usually completed before the Durga Pujas.
Netaji Subhas Open University (NSOU) from where over 1.25 lakh students in UG and PG appear for the examination every year has a tough challenge in conducting the examination process with the Supreme Court upholding UGC's guidelines of holding examination in the month of September.
"We will soon hold our academic council meeting to discuss come out with an alternative evaluation mode for assessing the students of our final semester keeping in mind that the mode should be acknowledged by UGC," said Subha Sankar Sarkar, NSOU vice-chancellor.
NSOU has 150 study centres located in different institutions which are closed till the end of this month. In October when the colleges open up the authorities will be very busy in clearing off the backlog. So there are feeble chances of using the study centre facilities on other days except Sunday. "So holding examinations for so many candidates in the conventional way in the study centres within the month of October seems non feasible," said a senior NSOU official.
