New Policy On Distance Learning In Higher Education Sector

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In pursuance to the announcement of 100 days agenda of HRD of ministry by Hon'ble Human Resources development Minister, a New Policy on Distance Understanding In Higher Education Sector was drafted.

BACKGROUND

1. In terms of Entry 66 of List 1 of the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution of India, Parliament is competent to make laws for the coordination and determination of standards in institutions for greater education for investigation, and scientific and technical institutions. Parliament has enacted laws for discharging this responsibility by way of: the University Grants Commission (UGC) for common Greater Education, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) for Technical Education and other Statutory bodies for other disciplines. As regards higher education, through the distance mode, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) Act, 1985 was enacted with the following two prime objectives, among other people: (a) To provide opportunities for greater education to a large segment of population, specifically disadvantaged groups living in remote and rural places, adults, housewives and working many people and (b) to encourage Open University and Distance Education Systems in the educational pattern of the country and to coordinate and establish the standards in such systems.

two. The history of distance studying or education by way of distance mode in India, goes way back when the universities started offering education by way of distance mode in the name of Correspondence Courses through their Directorate/School of Correspondence Education. In those days, the courses in humanities and/or in commerce had been provided through correspondence and taken by those, who, owing to many different reasons, such as limited number of seats in normal courses, employability, difficulties of access to the institutions of greater studying and so on., could not get themselves enrolled in the conventional `face-to-face' mode `in-class' programmes.

three. In the current past, the demand for higher education has increased enormously all through the country mainly because of awareness about the significance of higher education, whereas the method of greater education could not accommodate this ever growing demand.

4. Under the circumstances, a number of institutions such as deemed universities, private universities, public (Government) universities and even other institutions, which are not empowered to award degrees, have began cashing on the scenario by offering distance education programmes in a big number of disciplines, ranging from humanities to engineering and management etc., and at distinct levels (certificate to under-graduate and post-graduate degrees). There is at all times a danger that some of these institutions might possibly develop into `degree mills' providing sub- normal/poor excellent education, consequently eroding the credibility of degrees and other qualifications awarded through the distance mode. This calls for a far greater degree of coordination amongst the concerned statutory authorities, primarily, UGC, AICTE and IGNOU and its authority - the Distance Education Council (DEC).

5. Government of India had clarified its position in respect of recognition of degrees, earned via the distance mode, for employment under it vide Gazette Notification No. 44 dated 1.three.1995.

6. Despite the risks referred to in para 4 above, the significance of distance education in providing quality education and training cannot be ignored. Distance Mode of education has an vital role for:

(i)supplying chance of learning to those, who do not have direct access to face to face teaching, working persons, home-wives and so on.
(ii)supplying opportunity to working experts to update their information, enabling them to switchover to new disciplines and professions and enhancing their qualifications for career advancement.
(iii)exploiting the potential of Facts and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the teaching and understanding process and
(iv)achieving the target of 15% of GER by the finish of 11th Plan and 20% by the finish of 12th five year Program.

7. In order to discharge the Constitutional responsibility of determination and maintenance of the standards in Greater Education, by ensuring coordination amongst a variety of statutory regulatory authorities as also to make certain the promotion of open and distance education method in the nation to meet the aspirations of all cross-sections of people for higher education, the following policy in respect of distance understanding is laid down:

(a) In order to make certain appropriate coordination in regulation of standards of higher education in diverse disciplines via a number of modes [i.e. face to face and distance] as also to assure credibility of degrees/diploma and certificates awarded by Indian Universities and other Education Institutes, an apex body, namely, National Commission for Higher Education and Research shall be established in line with the recommendations of Prof. Yash Pal Committee/National Information Commission. A Standing Committee on Open and Distance

Education of the said Commission, shall undertake the job of coordination, determination and maintenance of standards of education via the distance mode. Pending establishment of this body:

(i) Only those programmes, which do not involve extensive practical course function, shall be permissible by means of the distance mode.

(ii) Universities / institutions shall frame ordinances / regulations / rules, as the case might possibly be, spelling out the outline of the programmes to be offered by means of the distance mode indicating the number of required credits, list of courses with assigned credits, reading references in addition to self learning material, hours of study, get in touch with classes at study centres, assignments, examination and evaluation process, grading and so on.

(iii) DEC of IGNOU shall only assess the competence of university/institute in respect of conducting distance education programmes by a team of professionals, whose report shall be placed prior to the Council of DEC for consideration.

(iv) The approval shall be given only right after consideration by Council of DEC and not by Chairperson, DEC. For the purpose, minimum number of mandatory meetings of DEC could be prescribed.

(v) AICTE would be directed under section 20 (1) of AICTE Act 1987 to assure accreditation of the programmes in Pc Sciences, Facts Technology and Management purposed to be supplied by an institute/university via the distance mode, by National Board of Accreditation (NBA).

(vi) UGC and AICTE would be directed under section 20 (1) of their respective Acts to frame detailed regulations prescribing standards for different programmes/courses, supplied by way of the distance mode under their mandate,

(vii) No university/institute, except the universities established by or under an Act of Parliament/State Legislature just before 1985, shall offer any programme by means of the distance mode, henceforth, without approval from DEC and accreditation by NBA. Even so, the universities/institutions already providing programmes in Humanities, Commerce/Home business/Social Sciences/Computer Sciences and Data Technology and Management, might possibly be allowed to continue, subject to the condition to obtain fresh approval from DEC and accreditation from NBA inside one year, failing which they shall have to discontinue the programme and the entire onus with respect to the academic career and monetary losses of the students enrolled with them, shall be on such institutions/universities.

(viii) In light of observation of Apex Court, ex-post-facto approval granted by any authority for distance education shall not be honoured and granted henceforth. However, the universities established by or under an Act of education programmes in the streams of Humanities/Commerce/Social Sciences before the year 1991 shall be excluded from this policy.

(ix) The students who have been awarded degrees through distance mode by the universities without having taking prior approval of DEC and other statutory bodies, shall be given 1 chance, supplied they fulfil the requirement of minimum standards as prescribed by the UGC, AICTE or any other relevant Statutory Authority via Regulation, to appear in examinations in such papers as decided by the university designated to conduct the examination. If these students qualify in this examination, the university concerned shall issue a certificate. The degree along with the said qualifying certificate could be recognised for the purpose of employment/promotion under Central Government.

(x) A clarification shall be issued with reference to Gazette Notification No. 44 dated 1.3.1995 that it shall not be applicable on to the degrees/diplomas awarded by the universities established by or under an Act of Parliament or State Legislature before 1985, in the streams of Humanities/Commerce and Social Sciences.

(xi) The policy initiatives spelt out in succeeding paragraphs shall be equally applicable to institutions offering distance education/intending to offer you distance education.

(b) All universities and institutions providing programmes via the distance mode shall need to have prior recognition/approval for offering such programmes and accreditation from designated competent authority, mandatorily in respect of the programmes offered by them. The violators of this shall be liable for appropriate penalty as prescribed by law. The universities/institutions providing education via distance mode and discovered involved in cheating of students/consumers by giving wrong/false info or wilfully suppressing the information shall also be dealt with strictly under the penal provisions of law.

(c) The universities / institutes shall have their own study centres for face to face counselling and removal of difficulties as also to seek other academic and administrative help. Franchising of distance education by any university, institutions no matter if public or private shall not be allowed.

(d ) The universities /institutions shall only present such programmes by means of distance mode which are on provide on their campuses through conventional mode. In case of open universities, they shall necessarily have the necessary departments and faculties prior to offering relevant programmes through distance mode.

(e) It would be mandatory for all universities and education institutions providing distance education to use Info and Communication Technology (ICT) in delivery of their programmes, management of the student and university affairs through a internet portal or any other such platform. The stated platform shall invariably, display in public domain, the info about the statutory and other approvals along with other required data about the programmes on give through distance mode, their accreditation and students enrolled, year- wise, etc. This could be linked to a national database, as and when designed, to facilitate the stakeholders to take a view on the recognition of the degrees for the purpose of academic pursuit or employment with/under them.

(f) All universities/education institutions shall make optimal use of e-studying contents for delivery/providing their programmes via distance mode. They shall also be encouraged/required to adopt e-surveillance technologies for conduct of clean, fair and transparent examinations.

(g) The focus of distance education shall be to offer chance of education to consumers at educationally disadvantaged circumstances such as living in remote and rural locations, adults with no or limited access to education of their choice etc.

(h) In order to promote flexible and want based learning, choice-based credit system shall be promoted and all ODE institutions shall be encouraged to adopt this system and evolve a mechanism for acceptance and transfer of credits of the courses successfully completed by students in face-to-face or distance mode. For the purpose, establishment of a credit bank may possibly be regarded as. Similarly, conventional universities, providing face to face mode programmes shall be encouraged to accept the credits earned by the students by way of distance mode. A switch over from annual to semester system shall be necessary.

(i) Convergence of the face-to-face mode teaching departments of conventional universities with their distance education directorates/correspondence course wings as also with open universities/institutions providing distance education, shall be impressed upon to bridge the gap in distance and conventional face-to-face mode of education.

(j) Reputed Foreign education providers nicely established, recognized and accredited by competent authority in their country and willing to offer you their education programmes in India shall be allowed, topic to the fulfillment of the legal requirement of the nation.

(k) A National Information and Communication Technology infrastructure for networking of ODE institutions shall be designed under National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology.

(l) Efforts would be made to make favourable environment for investigation in Open and Distance Education (ODE) program by setting up infrastructure like e- libraries, digital information-base, online journals, holding common workshops, seminars etc.

(m) Training and orientation programmes for educators and administrators in ODE method with focus on use of ICT and self-understanding practice, shall be encouraged.

(n) ODE institutions shall be encouraged to take care the educational needs of learners with disabilities and senior citizens.

(o) An official notification clarifying the problem of recognition of academic qualification, earned through distance mode, for the purpose of employment, shall be issued.

(p) A mechanism shall be set up for evaluation of degrees of foreign universities for the purpose of academic pursuit as well as for employment under the Central Government. This could contain the assessment of the credentials of the university concerned as also to test the competence of the degree holder, if necessary.