The University Grant Commission (UGC) has decided to allow 900 autonomous educational institutions to offer online degrees. Currently, only universities are permitted to offer remote online degree courses. While there will be no need for separate permission for running such courses, the colleges will have to ensure adherence to guidelines and regulations issued by the UGC.
The latest move will enable autonomous colleges with ranking among the top 100 spots in their respective subject categories in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) or have National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) grade of a minimum 3.26 to offer online degree courses, reported a leading news daily.
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The move will come into effect from July onwards as the government opens the online education sector up for achieving the target of 50 per cent gross enrollment ratio by 2035 as per the proposed reforms of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
The drafts for the change in the existing Open and Distance Learning Programmes and Online Programmes of UGC Regulations, 2020 will be completed and made available for feedback from stakeholders by the end of this week. The new draft will have a provision to allow higher education institutes to run online courses in emerging subject areas that may not be possible in offline mode
The online undergraduate programmes will have no cutoff as eligibility for admission and candidates who have cleared class 12 will be able to secure admission. Similarly, for postgraduate courses, the candidates will just have to pass the graduation in the relevant UG course.
The online courses will be designed to offer flexibilities like multiple entries and exit options during the course. A detailed framework of such flexibility options is expected to be out by next month.
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Candidates enrolled in the online courses will be evaluated through an online proctored computed bases test (CBT) by National Testing Agency (NTA). Like the in-person degree courses, students will have to have a minimum of 75 per cent attendance to be eligible for the examinations.
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