Coimbatore: Following a communication from the University Grants Commission, calling for applications from higher education institutions to offer open and distance learning (ODL) programmes, officials from the Bharathiar University said they would discus and go ahead with it.In a notification regarding the University Grants Commission (Open and Distance Learning) Third Amendment Regulations, 2018, the apex body had said the higher education institutions, which do not have a CGPA of 3.26 in the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) score – a mandatory criteria to run distance education programmes – can apply for it.However, it laid down a condition saying such institutions should submit an undertaking “to the effect that it will attain a NAAC score of 3.26 on a 4-point scale before the end of academic session July 2019-June 2020, failing which, the commission shall not accord any approval to the open and distance learning programmes of the higher educational institutions.”The UGC had asked the institutions to send in their applications online from September 18 to October 5.While this might come as a relief to state universities which have a NAAC score less than 3.26, officials of Bharathiar University – which has a score of 3.11 – said they would hold meet and discuss the tenets of the UGC’s communication before deciding whether to apply for running ODL programmes.Meanwhile, the university, which has acquired a stay order from the Madras high court against the UGC’s criteria of 3.26 NAAC score, has started signing MoUs with higher education institutions which have been selected to set up learner supporter centres to run the university’s distance education courses. So far 15 institutions have signed MoUs with the university, said officials of the university.

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