Online Education up by 179%, National Digital University Soon to Spike it Further: UGC

The University Grants Commission (UGC) is likely to announce about the National Digital University soon. Chairman, Jagadesh Kumar has said there there has been a steady rise in enrollments for online courses, however, this will pick up further once the commission announces about the National Digital University.

Around 72,400 students including both Indians and foreign nationals are currently enrolled in 345 programmes offered by universities across the country. This is a 179 per cent jump from last year 25,905 students, said  Kumar. There has been 20,37,676 students enrolled across 86 HEIs and 1078 programmes. In the last academic year, 14,38,101 students enrolled.

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The number of enrolments for open and distance learning courses has also increased by 42 per cent. There has been a rise from around 14 lakh in 2020-21 to more than 20 lakh in 2021-22, added Kumar.

“Online programmes provide a window of opportunity to many students who are unable to join physically in a college or University. There is a steady increase in the number of enrolments in online programmes,” said Kumar. He further added that we need to take advantage of modern digital technologies to prepare engaging digital content and reach out to students via internet at an affordable cost. This will help students become skilful and knowledgable.

“We need to take advantage of modern digital technologies to prepare engaging digital content and reach out to students using growing internet availability. At an affordable cost, students can access high quality education to become skilful and knowledgable,” said Kumar. “This will enable the students to become more employable in the emerging job market and has the added advantage of increasing the gross enrolment ratio,” he added.

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