Ruling cracks down on rogue distance or open courses

Ruling cracks down on rogue distance or open courses
Shuriah Niazi11 November 2017 Issue No:482

The Supreme Court of India has dealt a serious blow to deemed universities granting degrees that are delivered by distance or correspondence learning without first obtaining mandatory permission from the statutory bodies.

In a judgment on 3 November, the apex court judged that the institutions “flagrantly violated and entered into areas where they had no experience and started conducting courses through distance education systems illegally”.

The court suspended the engineering degrees awarded to students on distance courses between 2001 and 2005 by three deemed universities; and annulled degrees granted by those institutions after 2005.

It also issued a blanket restraint on all deemed universities obliging them not to carry on any course from the academic year 2018-19 “unless and until it is permissible to conduct such courses and specific permissions are granted by the concerned statutory authorities and the university campuses are individually inspected and found adequate by them”. 

UGC sets up committee to look into off-campus centres

The UGC has set up a committee to look into all aspects of off-campus centres established by some institutions deemed to be universities without its prior approval or that of the HRD ministry.

The committee would comprise UGC members Prof H Devaraj, Prof Mohammad Miyan, Prof Sanjay Govind Dhande and Dr KN Shanti apart from a member convener, as per the minutes of a meeting held last month.

Several leading institutions, which are deemed universities had set up off campus centres without prior approvals, for which they have been issued notices by the UGC.

UGC lets deemed private universities have 6 off-centre campuses

 Barely three months after the University Grants Commission (UGC) issued notice to 10 deemed universities, including prestigious ones like the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, for having off-centre campuses without clearance, it has amended its regulation allowing private deemed universities to have six off-campuses.



In case of government-established and managed deemed universities, the UGC's ceiling of six off-campuses will not apply.