A direct policy push to on the web education—by permitting universities/larger-education institutes (HEIs) to offer you certificate/diploma/ degree courses in the totally on the web mode—has produced headlines in India for some years now. In 2018, the program to enable major-one hundred universities/HEIs (based on National Institute Ranking Framework and NAAC scores) was initially announced. This was repeated in the finance minister’s Budget FY21 speech in Parliament. And when Covid-19 hit, and it was clear that classes as usual couldn’t continue—making on the web education not just desirable but also necessary—the government, in its Atmanirbhar Bharat announcements in May 2020, mentioned that the major one hundred universities would be permitted to offer you on the web courses with no requiring the UGC’s approval. The web-site of the Distance Education Bureau (DEB) of the UGC listing just seven universities/HEIs that are permitted to offer you on the web education is, thus, pretty telling of regulatory sclerosis.
To be confident, the list on the DEB web-site is an old one, and it could be that some other universities/HEIs have, because the May 2020 announcement, began or, at the really least, announced on the web degree/diploma/certificate programmes. However, the quantity is nevertheless probably to be beneath what Atmanirbhar Bharat envisaged. While infrastructure, personnel and other resource challenges are important hurdles—lack of sufficient on the web material and teaching tools, teachers/instructors educated to provide lectures on the web, or even machines important to propping digital infrastructure—Manish Sabharwal of Teamlease Services points out in that there are many regulatory hurdles. Indeed, as FE has highlighted ahead of, it is complicated to recognize why the government is so averse to liberalising on the web education for all universities/HEIs just after all, it does deem them match to administer courses in brick & mortar classrooms.
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To that finish, the clauses 3(A), (B), and 5 of the UGC (Open and Distance Learning Programmes and Online Programmes) Regulations, 2020 will need to go, says Sabharwal. Clause 3(B), that pertains to eligibility criteria for universities/HEIs to qualify for operating on the web programmes, offers a glimpse of the antediluvian regulatory considering holding back larger education in the nation. It delivers that HEIs/universities that qualify for operating on the web courses can begin a “maximum of three undergraduate and 10 postgraduate programmes” and will will need the UGC’s permission for beginning more courses. Other than that, the HEIs will be essential to submit “desired information” and “an affidavit to the UGC”—such vaguely worded provisions, as has been the case in the previous with regulation across sectors, are a conduit for government manage. The gains of permitting all universities, by way of an automatic approval route, to design and style, create and conduct their personal on the web programmes are not really hard to. Also, even though the annexure to the Regulations speak of guaranteeing programmes are “relevant to national economy”—that is, these are responsive to job-market place demands—the provision restricting the courses to only these supplied by the HEI in the offline mode imply universities are hamstrung.
With such a blinkered vision on on the web education, meeting the 50% larger education GER target that the new National Education Policy talks about will be pretty complicated. And, Covid-19 has shown how late India is to the game currently. The will need, thus, is to rapidly take away the regulatory hurdles to on the web education infra and resource hurdles are far a lot easier to take care of.