Students will not have to go for their second preferences in terms of selecting a college if they cannot get into the college of the first preference due to high cut offs. This delightful news comes as the higher officials have stated in a news conference that nearly 900 autonomous colleges will be able to offer remote courses from July onwards. This means students can learn without attending physical classes while getting a degree from the college of their first choice.
The government from July onwards will open up the education sector according to a major reform. The education sector to get fifty percent gross enrollment by 2035 in accordance with the National Education Policy of 2020.
Presently, only universities are allowed to offer degrees but that is soon going to change with this policy being in action. Autonomous colleges in the top hundred list appearing twice in the past three rankings of NIFR (National institutional Ranking Framework) or having a NAAC (National Assessment and Accreditation Council) award of 3.26 upwards can provide degrees without the approval of the UGC, but in accordance with their regulations.
There will be no criteria for admission to these colleges. No cut offs will be required. The only requirement will be to qualify the class twelve board examinations. Similarly to enroll for the post graduate courses, one would have to qualify the undergraduate examinations.
The draft for this amendment is currently being prepared and will be available for a critical assessment from the stakeholders by the end of this week.
The new reform will also let these institutions, offering higher education, teach courses in new sectors which may not be possible in the offline or physical mode. Hence the ‘one batch passout’ system is not required in conventional systems if they offer the same course in open and distance learning and offline mode (ODL)
Under the present structure, the courses taught in colleges are identical and the medium of instruction is either digital or conventional.
Offline degrees will be as flexible as the conventional degrees with respect to NEP 2020. Take the four year undergraduate programme with multiple entry and exit options for example. Mr M Jagadesh, the chairman of ugc said the online, conventional and ODL degrees will be of equal value.
This is being pursued to ensure a fifty percent hike in the gross enrollment ratio by 50 in the coming 13 years in accordance with the NEP 2020 target. It rose from 26.3% in 2018-19 to 27.1% in 2019-20 for students between 18 to 23 years.
“Like NEP, which is built on the five pillars of access, equity, quality, affordability and accountability, the online education ecosystem will be developed on the same principles,” said the chairperson of UGC, Mr Jagadesh Kumar.
These new reforms will be turned into amendments and notified to the citizens as mentioned in the current regulations issued during the pandemic on September 4, 2020 he informed.
Apart from programmes that require laboratories and technical programmes, and the programmes prohibited by any regulatory authority, Mr Jagadesh Kumar, the UGC chairman informed that offline courses could be run in all other programmes.
“Also, many universities may not have a physical model programme — for instance, in machine learning, data science, artificial intelligence and financial management. But they would like to offer that in the online mode. So, even if you don’t have this degree on the conventional physical campus, you can still offer these programmes online,” Mr Jagadesh Kumar informed.
Currently, universities can offer 120 UG, 229 PG, and two PG diploma programmes. There’s a scarcity of choices because courses taught physically can only be taught in the online mode.
“The new regulatory framework is to enable all the autonomous colleges to offer online education because if we stick to only universities, it becomes limited. There are a large number of high-quality autonomous colleges in the country. This will enhance access for learners. And we will have these institutes participating and offering both UG and PG programmes online. These online degrees will be just like degrees obtained from any physical university,” the UGC chairman said.
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