After the Karnataka State Open University, it is the turn of Bangalore University’s distance education wing to face the music from the University Grants Commission (UGC). BU has decided not to commence admissions to its distance education courses and correspondence courses for the 2015-16 academic year after the University Grants Commission (UGC) pointed out that recognition to the varsity’s programmes have not been renewed annually.
BU Vice-Chancellor B. Thimme Gowda, on Friday, admitted that the recognition to BU’s distance education programmes was last renewed in 2010-11.
“Distance education programmes were first under the Indira Gandhi National Open University, then the Distance Education Council and now the UGC. We have applied for renewal on time. We told the UGC that we had received no communication so far,” Prof. Gowda maintained, adding that BU will wait till November or December for the UGC to renew recognition.
Adding to BU’s defence, Kemparaju. T.D., Director, BU’s Directorate of Correspondence Courses and Distance Education, said that BU had not violated any rule. “The main guidelines, such as not stepping out of our territorial jurisdiction, offering only traditional courses that have no practicals, that too those that are offered as regular courses, were all followed,” he said.
Shifting departments
Meanwhile, BU claimed that its move to shift departments from the Central College campus, which is set to become the campus for a new university post the impending trifurcation, has not affected the postgraduate admissions. “In fact, even we hadn’t expected the admissions at Jnana Bharathi campus to be more than for Central College,” Prof. Gowda said. He added that the option to shift out of Central College was entirely voluntary.
