The Sree Narayana Open University (SNOU) will start admission procedures for distance education courses for the academic year 2022-23 as soon as the University Grants Commission (UGC) sanction was obtained, Minister for Higher Education R. Bindu said in the Assembly on Tuesday.
It was foreseeing this contingency that other universities were asked not to initiate admissions to long distance courses through private registration mode, she said.
Ms. Bindu was replying to a calling attention motion by T.V. Ibrahim, highlighting the predicament which has risen in the higher education sector following a circular issued by the Higher Education department that other universities may conduct admissions to distance education courses only if SNOU did not get UGC recognition for its distance education courses
If at all the UGC Distance Education Bureau does not give sanction to the SNOU for initiating admissions in 2022-23, then the question of allowing other universities to give admission for distance education courses this year would be considered by the government, she said.
Other universities had just initiated procedures for admission to regular courses. Normally, it was only after the completion of regular admissions that admission procedures for private registration/distance learning courses were initiated. Hence the government would take suitable measures in a time-bound manner to ensure that the future of students seeking higher education was not affected, Ms. Bindu said.
The SNOU had received sanction from UGC for starting open distance learning in 2021 itself. Steps were underway to start admissions for 12 UGC courses and five PG courses this year. The SNOU had taken steps to obtain separate UGC sanction for each course in the open distance learning mode.
The UGC sanction was expected for admissions in this academic year itself, she added.
