Dhruvanarayan raises KSOU issue in Lok Sabha

He seeks immediate Central intervention to solve problems being faced by lakhs of students

Member of Parliament from Chamarajanagar R. Dhruvanarayan has raised the issue of problems being faced by lakhs of students over the delay in granting back recognition to the Karnataka State Open University (KSOU), in the Lok Sabha.

Demanding restoration of recognition, Mr. Dhruvanarayan, who raised the issue during the Zero Hour in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, sought immediate intervention of the Union government for resolving the issue.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) terminated recognition of the KSOU in June 2015 from the academic year 2012–13 onwards, accusing the university of flouting norms.

The MP demanded re-recognition from 2013–14 and 2014–15 in the interest of students who had been admitted directly to the KSOU and to de-link the academic collaborative issue from in-house system (direct admission of students to the KSOU).

A note from the MP said in-house admissions for 2013–14 with 49,675 students and for 2014–15 with 46,178 students had been completed by the time the UGC de-recognised the university. For no fault of theirs, over two lakh students had been left in the lurch following alleged lapses on the part of the administrative and governing bodies, he charged.

Mr. Dhruvanarayan told Parliament that the recognition was withdrawn on the grounds that the KSOU was imparting technical courses through academic collaborative institutes outside its territorial jurisdiction.

The scope of a show-cause notice was restricted only to technical, paramedical, and management courses. But the UGC de-recognised all the courses, including the in-house ones, which were unnecessary, the MP said.

A team from the KSOU recently made a presentation before a six-member expert committee at the UGC headquarters in New Delhi seeking granting of recognition for offering Open and Distance Learning programmes for the academic year 2018–19.

This attempt gains importance in the light of the new UGC (Open and Distance Learning) Regulations, 2017. Recognition for retrospective years that were terminated three years ago has to be independently dealt with.