SAMBALPUR: Residents and members of various organisations of Sambalpur on Friday formed a human chain demanding resumption of admission into UG and PG courses in Odisha State Open University (OSOU). The agitators under the aegis of ‘OSOU Banchao Abhiyan’ formed the human chain along the road in front of Sambalpur collector’s office. The chain stretched up to around 200 metre till the DRDA office. The agitators raised slogans and displayed placards protesting the ‘apathy’ of the government towards the university.
Convener of the Abhiyan Mahendra Mishra said OSOU came into existence in 2015-16. It received approval to offer 14 PG and 11 UG programmes in 2018-19. The approval was valid for a period of five years.
However, the approval was not renewed after it lapsed in 2022-23. Due to lack of UGC approval, the university has stopped inviting applications for admission into PG and UG courses in the ongoing academic session of 2023-24.
Mishra further said as per the UGC guidelines, universities seeking fresh approval must have at least 60 per cent of self-learning materials besides at least three teachers each for UG or PG courses or five teachers if both UG and PG programmes are offered.
Moreover, if a university has completed six years or has had two batches of graduates, it needs a NAAC accreditation. “Though more than seven years have passed since OSOU was established, it still lacks basic infrastructure due to lack of attention of the government. Due to apathy of the state government, no teaching post has been sanctioned yet for the open learning university,” he alleged.
Co-convener of the Abhiyan Parvej Ali Khan said, “We had submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister over the issue and urged the government to take steps for resumption of UG and PG admission in the university. We were forced to resort to agitation as the government did not pay any heed to our plea.”