ANANTAPUR: As many as 32,000 students, who joined undergraduate courses, and 12,000 who enrolled for PG courses offered by Sri Krishnadevaraya University (SKU) in distance education mode in the academic year 2015-16, are yet to appear for their examinations.
The students are worried now that even if they write the exams their certificates may not be valid as the university had offered the courses in 2015-16 without getting permission from the Distance Education Bureau (DEB).
The academic year 2014-15 was the last time, the DEB permitted the university to offer courses in distance education mode. SKU started offering UG and PG courses through distance mode from the year 2000 and as per the DEB guidelines, permission has to be renewed every 3-5 years.
For undisclosed reasons, the university has not been permitted to offer the courses since 2015-16. Though there was no permission from the DEB, the university conducted admissions for distance courses and even conducted the first year exams for a few courses. After that, no examinations have been held.
What is more shocking is that most of the students did not even get their second-year study material.
“I joined BSc (MPC) distance mode course in 2015-16. Till date, not a single exam has been conducted. I ran from pillar to post in SKU to find out when will be the exams conducted and more importantly, when will the varsity get the requisite permission from the DEB for a 2015-16 academic year, without which our degrees have no value,” says A Srinivasulu.
The distance education department office on the varsity campus is being frequented by the students to know their fate, but every time, they return disappointed. SKU officials used to tell them that they are striving to get the recognition for the courses offered in 2015-16 in distance mode, but there has been no result.
S Ranganayakulu from Kurnool, who joined Post Graduate course in the varsity through distance mode, is also worried about his future.
“The university should have made it clear that they were waiting for the DEB permission at the time of admission into distance courses. Then we could have taken an informed decision. However, it was not the case. Our future is uncertain. We joined the course with the hope for better career prospects. Our hopes are shattered now,” says Ranganayakulu.
According to some experts, who are in the know of things with regard to distance education courses, getting permission for the 2015-16 academic year is very difficult at this stage.
When contacted by Express, R Tulasi Naik, Director of Distance Education, admitted that there was no permission for the courses offered by Sri Krishnadevaraya University in the academic year 2015-16.
“We have applied for permission for 2018-19 and 2019-20 academic years. Once the process is completed, we will try to get permission for the courses offered in 2015-16 academic year and after that we will conduct examinations,” he said.
University Vice-Chancellor MCS Subha more or less repeated the same and said they are striving to resolve the issue at the earliest.
However, students are increasingly getting disillusioned with the varsity. K Badrinath, who joined MBA course that year, lambasted the SKU for its mismanagement.
“They are dumb and they have ruined our future. It is high time that the State government intervenes to do justice to us,” he adds.