Mark courses under distance learning: UGC
11/05/2016
NEW DELHI: A "guideline" from the University Grants Commission tells universities to state if a course was delivered through distance learning on all documents issued, including the degree.
Issued on October 31, the direction has angered officials, teachers and students at Delhi University's School of Open Learning. They see it as creating an avenue for discriminating against students who have otherwise studied the same curriculum. However, in DU's case, it won't be the same for at least another year. After a two-month delay in launching the 2016 session, SOL authorities have finally decided they will not implement choice-based credit system this year after all. The course material for first year is yet to be dispatched and sources say DU has constituted a committee on the implementation of CBCS in SOL.
The UGC's letter says the commission met on September 2, 2016 and decided that the mode should be disclosed on "all the documents issued to students in order to erase ambiguities between conventional mode degree(s) with that of ODL mode degree(s)." They're required to have the line "Mode of delivery: ODL/Distance" on them. This is exactly what the SOL community is against. "The degree has to be the same. You don't write the name of the college on the degree do you? Why would you write the mode if the syllabus is the same?" asks a senior official.
Harish Gautam, SOL-student and member of student-organisation Krantikari Yuva Sangathan, sees this as UGC admitting "there's a difference between distance and regular modes." "Instead of closing the gap, they are marking us out. This is an anti-student decision by the UGC," he says.
By Shreya Roy Chowdhury