The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Meet to discuss issues relating to recognition of distance education degrees

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 01, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Meet to discuss issues relating to recognition of distance education degrees

Priscilla Jebaraj

CHENNAI: Graduates of the distance education programme of the University of Madras, who have found it difficult to get a Central Government job because their degrees are not recognised by the Distance Education Council, can blame their predicament on the transparency of their university.

“Most universities don’t even mention on their degree [certificates] whether the student belongs to the distance education mode or not. So they do not have any problem,” says Manjulika Srivastava, professor at the Distance Education Council. “That is why even reputed universities such as Delhi University have not bothered to apply for recognition of their distance education programmes.”

In such a scenario, Dr. Srivastava feels that the situation faced by Madras University graduates who have been rejected by government recruiters is a “freak case” that can be rectified as soon as the university applies for retrospective recognition of its distance education degrees. “Madras University is a well recognised university doing everything legitimately. I don’t think there should be any problem from our side,” she said.

On Tuesday, Dr. Srivastava is organising a meeting of the Council with the Vice-Chancellors of open universities and directors of correspondence course institutions in New Delhi. It will discuss issues relating to recognition, quality, funding and government support.

G. Mohan Ram, director of the Institute of Distance Education of Madras University, says he would raise the issue of retrospective recognition of degrees at the meeting.

He says the university applied for recognition in 2005, as soon as it received a circular informing that a 1995 Act stipulated that only distance education degrees issued by DEC-recognised institutions would be accepted for Central Government recruitment. Recognition was finally awarded in 2007. Students who graduated before that date are still vulnerable.

“We responded immediately. What is our fault? Why should our students be penalised? We will fight for justice for our students and students all over Tamil Nadu,” said Dr. Mohan Ram, just before leaving for New Delhi.

He said a number of reputed universities, including Madurai Kamaraj University and Bharathidasan University, wanted to bring up the issue at the meeting and ask the DEC to clarify its norms.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu