New Delhi: As students get ready to enrol in colleges and universities, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has released a checklist for distance learning programmes. Students can follow this list to make informed decisions about their careers. The checklist includes compliance with a prescribed duration for academic sessions, prohibition of private franchising agreements and ensuring all activities are within the territorial jurisdiction. This checklist is specially designed for students to consult before enrolling in distance learning programmes.
“Please ensure that the minimum duration, nomenclature and qualification for degree programme under which they are enrolling is strict as per UGC notification on the specification of degrees and its amendments,” said UGC Secretary Rajnish Jain. A notification listing the precautions that need to be taken by students before enrolling in Open and Distance Learning (ODL) programmes is also released.
“Also ensure that all activities of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) including admission, counselling sessions, contact programmes, programme delivery and examinations are strictly conducted within the territorial jurisdiction,” he added.
“Please ensure that the admission process is carried out through the headquarters of the HEIs in a transparent manner. The learners are also advised to verify all details as claimed by the institution on the website. If any deviation is noticed, please communicate the same to UGC for necessary punitive action as per provisions defined under respective regulations,” Jain said, reiterating the importance of some points in the checklist.
The rules behind the checklist for distance learning programmes
The advisory arrived as the rules themselves were being rewritten. The UGC (Open and Distance Learning Programmes and Online Programmes) Regulations, 2020 were notified in the Gazette of India on 4 September 2020, according to a later UGC notice, and they set the minimum standards of instruction for undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, and two-year postgraduate diplomas, taught at a distance or online.
The commission’s public notice from its Distance Education Bureau, dated August 2020, turns those expectations into plain instructions for applicants. It asks them to check an institution’s year-wise, session-wise recognition status, and to match a degree’s duration, name and entry qualification against the UGC’s specification of degrees: 10+2 for an undergraduate programme, and 10+2 plus a three-year degree for a postgraduate one.
The first stop for any applicant is the Distance Education Bureau’s website, where the UGC publishes the recognition status of institutions allowed to teach at a distance, along with the list of Category-I universities that have filed affidavits to offer such programmes. The notice asks students to read the bureau’s notice board before taking admission anywhere.
University Grants Commission: private franchising ban and territorial limits
The ban on private franchising is the checklist’s sharpest edge. No central, state, private or deemed-to-be university may offer its programmes through franchising arrangements with private coaching institutions, whether for admitting learners or for teaching them, and the complete admission process must run through the institution’s headquarters. The territorial rules are just as strict: a university set up under a central Act must stay within the jurisdiction its Act defines, a state university may never operate beyond the territory of its home state, and a deemed-to-be university may work only from its headquarters or from off-campus centres approved by the Government of India through a gazette notification.
The prohibited list carries a catch-all as well as named subjects. Beyond the twelve fields the notice names, any programme that a statutory council or regulatory body does not permit in distance mode is barred, and MPhil and PhD programmes are prohibited in every discipline. The notice also reminds students that recognised institutions, Category-I universities included, must publish their details on their own websites, so a claim that cannot be found there is worth reporting to the UGC.
As per these norms, the students need to keep in mind the following points:
- No central, state, private or deemed-to-be university can offer its programmes through franchising agreements with private coaching institutions. This applies to admissions and conducting courses through open and distance learning and online mode.
- The admission process needs to be carried out through the headquarters of the HEIs in a transparent way. The students can verify all details claimed by institutes on the website. In case of any deviation, the students must communicate with the UGC for necessary punitive action as per the regulations.
- Advisory against taking admission in programmes which are prohibited in distance learning has also been issued. These programmes include engineering, medicine, law, dental, pharmacy, nursing, architecture, physiotherapy, agriculture, hotel management, culinary studies, and the valuation of real estate. Also included are MPhil or PhD programmes in any discipline.
- In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Commission decided that the revised academic session for this year shall be kept as a period of 12 months. According to this, the session will be from September-October, 2020 and February-March, 2021.
With the latest shift to online education due to the ongoing pandemic, this step by the UGC aims to ensure that a check on higher universities is maintained. Students also get to make informed academic decisions with the help of this checklist.
Since then: the warning became a routine
The checklist for distance learning programmes has outlived the pandemic that framed it. The 2020 regulations have since been amended, with changes notified on 1 July 2021 and 18 July 2022, and the UGC has reissued its student advisory. A public notice of 19 March 2024, issued over the signature of UGC Secretary Manish R. Joshi, repeats the same core points: confirm the institution’s recognition for the session on the bureau’s portal, check its website, note the prohibited programmes and the ban on franchising, and make sure all activities stay within its territorial jurisdiction.
The 2024 notice added detail that the 2020 version lacked. It set a hard date, 31 March 2024, as the last day of admissions for the session beginning in February 2024, and it listed what recognised institutions must upload on their websites, including their application to the UGC, an affidavit, and the approvals of their statutory bodies and regulators. Four years on, the first instruction in the UGC’s checklist for distance learning programmes was unchanged: check recognition before taking admission.
