The Karnataka State Open University (KSOU), which was granted recognition to offer 17 courses for the next five years starting from 2018-19, is expected to start admissions to the courses in about a fortnight. It is planning to take the online route for admissions as a first step to establish transparency in its affairs.
“The UGC has given us till October 1 for admissions. We hope to start in the next 15 days as we want time to make arrangements for the same since we are, for the first time, going for online admissions,” said Vice-Chancellor D. Shivalingaiah.
Prof. Shivalingaiah, who had camped in New Delhi, meeting the top UGC officials, told The Hindu on Friday that the university is planning to collaborate with ‘State Bank Collect’ platform to facilitate online admissions. Provision for generating challans is being made. “We have thought of discontinuing manual admissions as all details on the courses, including prospectus will be made available on the website. Moreover, we have limited time for admissions. In future too, online admissions will be done,” he said.
The draft version of online admission system is ready and will be integrated to the university’s website www.ksoumysore.edu.in soon after a trial run.
The UGC de-recognised KSOU in June 2015 and the officials led by the V-C made innumerable visits to the headquarters in New Delhi in the last three years to get back the recognition.
The V-C is convening a meeting of top officials in the coming week to prepare for admissions and chalking out a road map for the next five years. “As it’s a recognition given to the courses, all provisions laid down by the UGC in its order will be complied with,” he said.
The university is planning to take up the old students’ issue with the UGC once the admission for the current year concludes. From 2012-13, the recognition was withdrawn, affecting lakhs of students. Their fate is still undecided.
Muktagangotri gets fresh lease of life
Muktagangotri, the campus of KSOU, is expected to come back to life after three years.
The UGC recognition for the next five years has given a flresh ease of life to KSOU whose staff and infrastructure were kept unused because of the de-recognition chapter.
The landlines of V-C’s Secretariat in the administrative block on campus have been ringing continuously since Friday morning with enquiries on the admissions and other matters.
The university had been paying salaries to the staff from its corpus for three years. The work on the incomplete building may resume.
University to seek UGC nod for remaining courses soon
The KSOU has been granted recognition for 17 of the 31 courses officials had sought UGC approval for.
The recognition has been granted only on the basis of courses. They include BA, B.Com, BLSc., MA in Ancient History and Archaeology, MA in Economics, MA in English, MA in Hindi, MA in History, MA in Journalism and Mass Communication, MA in Kannada, MA in Political Science, MA in Public Administration, MA in Sociology, MA in Urdu, M Com, MLISc and M.Sc. in Environmental Science.These can be offered from 2018-19 to 2022-23, for five years.
The UGC has turned down the KSOU plea for offering PG programmes in Science in Open and Distance Learning (ODL) mode. Courses denied approval include B.Ed, MA in Sanskrit, MBA, M.Sc. in Biochemistry, M.Sc. in Clinical Nutrition and Dietetics, M.Sc. in Computer Science, M.Sc. in Geography, M.Sc. in Information Science, M.Sc. in Mathematics, M.Sc. in Microbiology, M.Sc. in Physics, M.Sc. in Pyschology and M.Sc. in Chemistry.
Vice-Chancellor D. Shivalingaiah told The Hindu that the KSOU will approach the UGC again seeking permission for the remaining courses with all necessary documents. “We have one month and are confident of getting the UGC nod. We don’t know on what grounds the courses were denied approval,” he added.
