Summary:
Since distance education courses offered by our universities will be a hurdle to foreign online courses, the UGC had in 2014-15 imposed jurisdictional restriction and asked them to offer distance courses within their region” he said. Trichy: Universities offering distance education courses are in a fix over the recent announcement of University Grants Commission (UGC) that a minimum CGPA of 3.26, on a four-point scale, in National Accreditation and Assessment Council (NAAC) was necessary to run the courses.The higher education department has now asked UGC to relax the norm to enable all state universities to run distance education courses. It has also directed the affected seven state universities to make individual representations to UGC in this regard.Out of the 119 dual mode universities in the country that offer distance education courses, less than 40 are eligible as per the new UGC rule thereby keeping 80-odd universities out of reckoning. “The present dispensation at the UGC wants to open the higher education field to international market by enabling foreign universities to offer online course in collaboration with our universities. He also said that the universities should prove to be competent and eligible to run such courses.Former president of association of university teachers (AUT), K Pandiyan, claimed that the move was to cut down on the number of universities offering distance education..