The Periyar University has proposed to enrol one lakh students in the courses offered through its distance education mode.
Thanks to the effective steps initiated by the Periyar Institute of Distance Education (PRIDE), more than 10,000 students were enrolled in the courses offered by it in the last six months. At present more than 28,000 students are pursuing higher education courses through distance education mode of the University, C. Swaminathan, Vice-Chancellor of the University, said here on Wednesday.
The Vice-Chancellor was speaking at a function to distribute mark sheets of the University examinations to the coordinators of the 385 PRIDE centres functioning across the country.
Need based programmes
Elaborating the steps taken by the University to strengthen the PRIDE setup, Dr. Swaminathan said a record number of 56 new need based programmes were introduced during the academic year 2014-15, taking the total number of courses offered to 150.
The coordinators of the PRIDE centres having suggestions on need based programmes can forward the same. These proposals will be discussed a the meeting of the Board of Studies.
He said the issues concerning the PRIDE centres were discussed regularly and steps were taken to revamp the system. The admission process has been simplified and streamlined. From the next academic year, the system of online payment of fees will be introduced. The University from this year will provide the academic calendar to the distance mode students and the examinations will be conducted as per schedule.
The University has also proposed to provide provisional certificates to the final year students along with the mark sheets.
S. Leela, Controller of Examinations of the University, K. Senthilvel Murugan, Deputy Controller of Examinations, and P. Thirumoorthi, Director in-charge of PRIDE, spoke.
