THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It’s playing out into a tussle between two state universities over distance education courses. Sree Narayana Guru Open University (SNGOU) has strongly objected to Calicut University’s move to enrol students in Open and Distance Learning (ODL) courses this year for which the Kollam-headquartered varsity has received UGC approval.
As per the SNGOU Act passed by the state legislature, other state universities are barred from offering courses notified by the newly set up open university.
While Kerala University has brought out its admission notification this year excluding all the 22 courses offered by SNGOU, Calicut University’s list has nine courses for which SNGOU recently received UGC approval.
“As per the UGC regulations, notification for admission to ODL progammes should be issued only after July 1. However, Calicut University issued it well ahead, on June 7,” pointed out a senior official of SNGOU.
Meanwhile, Calicut University sources said the nine courses of SNGOU in question had not received UGC approval when its admission notification was brought out.
It is learnt that SNGOU has also objected to the practice of Calicut and Mahatma Gandhi universities to allow ‘private registration’ as the Act also prohibits state universities from doing so.
‘SNGOU writes to Calicut, MG varsities’
According to sources, SNGOU has written to both Calicut and MG universities urging them to freeze all admission proceedings for courses for which the former has received UGC nod.
Among the 12 distance learning courses notified by Calicut University for admission this year, three UG programmes and six PG programmes figure in the SNGOU list. If these are excluded, Calicut University will be left with only one UG course -- BA Political Science -- and two PG courses -- MSc Mathematics and MA Political Science -- in distance education mode.
Meanwhile, steering clear of controversies, Kerala University has notified only three UG courses and five PG courses in distance learning mode this year. The varsity has ensured that none of these courses are in the list of programmes offered by SNGOU. Last year, when a similar scenario arose, the state government had permitted state universities to conduct ODL courses other than those for which SNGOU had applied for recognition from the UGC.