The University Grants Commission (UGC) is likely to grant recognition to 35 courses, proposed by the Karnataka State Open University (KSOU), in a couple of days.
A delegation, of KSOU officials, has left for New Delhi to hold talks with the officials of the UGC and also Distance Education Council (DEC) to start the courses for the academic year 2018-19. KSOU Vice Chancellor D Shivalingaiah is leaving for Delhi on Wednesday.
KSOU has made all arrangements to follow the University Grants Commission (Open and Distance Learning) Regulations, 2017, in view of getting recognition for its courses. Last year, in August, the UGC started issuing applications for renewal of recognition for courses offered by various universities. The KSOU has submitted its application, formally.
It has to be recalled that the KSOU’s recognition was cancelled in 2013 as the university was found to have opened centres outside Karnataka in violation of UGC norms, signed MoUs with private institutions and was offering technical courses without the approval of the apex bodies concerned.
According to sources, the UGC had asked the KSOU to meet three conditions: adhere to the policy of territorial jurisdiction, don’t offer technical courses, and don’t sign memoranda of understanding with private intuitions. The authorities have added one more condition, adoption of the National Academic Depository (NAD) for issuing degree certificates.
NAD is a Central government initiative for digitally holding certificates from 10th standard onwards in a central database. Besides eradicating fake and duplicate degree certificates, NAD will reduce the hassles of accessing and verifying academic credentials of students, domestic or foreign universities, human resource (HR) consultants and employers.
The UGC has also asked the KSOU to give details of its regional centres, their infrastructure, staff strength and other resources. A commission, headed by professor H P Dixit, had studied the KSOU documents in December 2016 and had submitted a report to the UGC.
The UGC norms permitted the KSOU to apply for 76 courses. However, the KSOU applied for 36 courses. The UGC has agreed to grant permission to 35 of them, except LLM.