UGC Norms For Distance Education: What Is It All About

Pursuing one’s further education through online courses or distance mode in India is very common. These courses help an individual to grow further in a particular field. Many professionals go for these courses for professional growth while many housewives pursue these courses to gain knowledge and some to join professional world later and many pursue these courses as these courses do not demand much fee as the regular courses.

The distance education in India started five decades ago and since then was offering education to lakhs of students in India under Distance Education Council which was from 2013 came under the discretion of UGC.  

In the recent past, the demand for higher education has increased enormously throughout the country because of awareness about the significance of higher education, whereas the system of higher education could not accommodate this ever increasing demand.

A number of institutions including deemed universities, private universities, public universities and even other institutions, which are not empowered to award degrees, have started cashing on the situation by offering distance education programmes in a large number of disciplines, ranging from humanities to engineering and management etc and at different levels.

However, it was witnessed that many institutions were offering sub-standard, poor quality education, consequently eroding the credibility of degrees and other qualifications awarded through the distance mode.

Some universities offered courses against the norms of UGC giving student degrees which are not even approved by UGC.

Here are few guidelines of UGC which you must know

Only those programme, which do not involve extensive practical course work, shall be permissible through the distance mode.

Universities should have proper framework about the distance mode courses wherein the framework must indicate the number of required credits, list of courses with assigned credits, reading reference in addition to self-learning material, hours of study, contact classes at study centres, assignments, examination and evaluation process, grading etc.

All universities and institutions offering programmes through the distance mode shall need to have prior recognition from UGC’s Distance Education Council.

There is no separate Distance Education Council, now it is under the discretion of UGC.

So, next time you apply for a course keep these points in your mind!