BENGALURU: Students who wanted to take up distance education at Bangalore University and Karnataka State Open University (KSOU) are left disappointed with the University Grants Commission (UGC) not renewing affiliation of the two varsities.
With the UGC withdrawing its affiliation for KSOU, Mysuru, and Bangalore University’s distance education programme, the admissions were not made for the year 2015-16. A BU official said, “Though there is demand from candidates to get admissions, we were unable to do so as we have not received any clarity from the UGC.”
UGC had derecognised distance education courses of both the universities six months ago, following irregularities in getting approvals.
If at all the admissions were to be done, they should have been done by December. Bangalore University Vice Chancellor Dr B Thimme Gowda said, “We tried our best to convince the UGC authorities as there is no mistake from our side and we have submitted all the necessary documents. However, they have not given any clearance yet.”
“I have met the UGC officials and discussed the matter. We tried hard to get the permission at least before January so that we could start the admissions for the present academic year. Even now we are in touch with UGC as we do not want to lose admissions for 2016-17,” Gowda said. It is the same story with KSOU, Mysuru. The admissions at KSOU too have been suspended for 2015-16. KSOU caters to the highest number of students for various courses under its distance education programme. According to KSOU officials, the university admits at least one lakh students for various courses.
The universities have to start preparations for the academic year 2016-17 in the next two months. Advertisements about the applications should be issued by the end of April and the actual process of issuing applications should start by the first week of June.
“We have to get the clearance from UGC at least for the year 2016-17 and we need to get this by the next two months,” BU V-C said.
BU Loses Out on Revenue
Bangalore University has lost revenue worth `1.5 crore due to zero admissions under its distance education programmes for a year.
During 2014-15, BU made 3,222 admissions and the fee charged was Rs 5,000 to Rs 6,000 per candidate.
However, BU Vice Chancellor said, “That revenue does not matters to us, we are here to cater higher education to the needy.”
Students turn to IGNOU
The candidates who were looking for admissions at KSOU and BU have now diverted towards Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU). Speaking to Express, a person who joined for a PG course at IGNOU said, “As far as my knowledge, it is better to pursue courses at IGNOU as these state universities have one or the other issue. So, I preferred to join IGNOU.” “In KSOU, they not just suspended admissions, the UGC also declared courses offered during 2013-14 and 2014-15 as illegal. When such is the case, who will have the courage to join,” asked Archana who took admission at IGNOU for PG course.