Chennai: In a move to curb the distance education courses offered by universities from outside the state, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has directed all the state governments to stop all state and private universities operating beyond the territorial jurisdiction of their states.
UGC secretary Jaspal S.Sandhu, in a circular to all the state education secretaries, requested that they check and stop the all other universities (except central universities) from operating in their respective states. He also urged the secretaries to take suitable steps for amending the existing Acts so as to bring the same in conformity with the observations made by the Supreme Court of India.
Earlier, the commission also impressed upon all the institutions to limit the system of distance education to the neighbourhood of the location of their main campus or at the most within the state.
“UGC has issued several public notices and circulars, however, it has been noticed that some private as well as state universities are still violating the directions relating to territorial jurisdiction of universities issued by UGC time to time,” the circular said.
The circular also said that this has led to the deterioration of the distance education in the country and ultimately the qualifications acquired through distance education are being accepted by some employers and educational institutes.
“UGC’s decision is out of sync with the current realities relating to e-learning and new modes of delivering higher education, where geography is not a barrier,” said T.R. Gopalakrishnan, Syndicate Member, University of Madras and Coordinator, Centre for e-Learning, Pan African e-Network and Virtual University Tele-Education Project.
“The modalities of delivering education have diversified. Even the courses with contact classes by distance education institutions have seen students’ numbers shrinking over the last few years. It is not tenable for the institutions to operate within the state,” he said.
“If the commission wants to bring quality to e-learning and distance education courses they can develop guidelines for standards and accreditation instead of raising the jurisdiction issues,” he added.
It may be noted that Ministry of Human Resource Development had notified last year that the degrees and diplomas obtained from distance education mode were valid for central government jobs.
