Proceed against Varsities Offering Distance Courses without Approval: Panel

A government panel which is reviewing functioning of deemed universities has recommended legal action against some institutions which it found it be running distance mode courses without approval, in addition to discontinuation of such programmes, media reports said.

The committee, set up by the HRD Ministry to suggest action plan for implementation of its recommendations on the deemed universities, suggested that institutions running courses without due approval of concerned bodies should be proceeded against, reports said.

It may be mentioned that an institute requires, as per norms, approval of Distance Education Council, All India Council of Technical Education and University Grants Commission in order to be able to offer courses in distant mode.

Many deemed universities are at present running distances courses and enrolling thousands of students, with many of them not having approval of these regulatory bodies.

“If the courses are run without the approval of appropriate Regulatory Authorities, the concerned deemed university should be proceeded against under the relevant laws for misleading students and harming their interests,”0 the task force, headed by P N Tandon, was quoted as saying.

“All those courses in the distance mode which do not comply with the requirements of the tripartite agreement between UGC, AICTE and DEC must be discontinued forthwith,” the task force was quoted as saying.

As many as 44 universities have been found unfit for the status in view of poor academic achievement by the committee, which put another 44 institutions in the deficient category, recommending they should be given three years time to comply or else their status should be withdrawn. Only  38 other institutions were found up to mark.