Twelve standalone institutions imparting education in the open and distance learning mode will either have to become universities by 2018 or be disallowed from offering these diplomas and certificate courses.
In a letter, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has informed these institutes that it has amended the University Grants Commission (Open and Distance Learning) Regulations, 2017. “Certificates or diplomas or postgraduate diplomas awarded by the standalone institutions… shall remain valid… till the academic year 2017-18, and thereafter they shall be free to get their status converted to university or deemed-to-be university…, failing which the Commission shall not accord any approval to the open and distance learning programmes of standalone institutions,” UGC Secretary P.K. Thakur said.
The institutions are All India Management Association, New Delhi; Institute of Rail Transport, New Delhi; TECNIA Institute of Advanced Studies, New Delhi; IFIM Business School, Bengaluru; Symbiosis Center for Distance Learning, Pune; MIT School of Distance Education, Pune; Indian Institute of Material Management, Navi Mumbai; Welingkar Institute of Management, Research and Development, Mumbai; Asian School of Business Management, Bhubaneshwar; and IMT Distance and Open Learning Institute, Ghaziabad. Two government institutes — National Institute of Health and Family Welfare, Munirka, and National Institute of Rural Development, Hyderabad — are also on the list.
