BHUBANESWAR: In a move to draw more students towards higher education, the state government has decided to provide university status to more colleges, and expand distance education programmes in public universities.
After the Odisha Universities (Amendment) Bill, 2024 was passed in the Assembly following a marathon discussion that lasted till Thursday morning, the Higher Education department plans to prepare a roadmap to introduce distance learning courses in universities that are yet to start it, besides strengthening the existing distance learning system in such institutions.
The bill which will now be called Odisha Universities (Amendment) Act, 2024, has a new clause on distance education system. Higher Education minister Suryabanshi Suraj said the clause has been included in order to increase the gross enrolment ratio (GER) in higher education. This will also address the gaps in accessing quality higher education, particularly for students in remote and underserved regions, he said. Odisha’s gross enrolment ratio is around 20.7 pc while the national GER is 27.3 pc.
Further, the government plans to introduce a provision to facilitate establishment of more universities in the state, either through the creation of new universities or by upgrading the existing higher education institutions to university status for increasing the GER.
There are 15 general universities in Odisha that are run by the state government. It includes three unitary universities - GM University at Sambalpur, Ravenshaw University in Cuttack and Khallikote University in Ganjam. However, apart from the popular institutions like Utkal, Berhampur, Ravenshaw, Sambalpur universities, the newer ones have not started distance education programmes in a full-fledged manner.
“Universities like Dharanidhar, Rajendra, Vikram Dev have not started distance learning courses yet. This decision is aimed at bringing students of rural areas into the higher education fold because they usually discontinue education after Plus II or bachelors degree due to poor marks or lack of universities in the vicinity,” said an official.
Although there is Odisha State Open University, which is the Odisha’s first distance-learning state university, it is plagued by issues like faculty shortage and lack of operational space among other things.
In the last five years, the government has upgraded three autonomous colleges into universities.