Utkal University, which is also running distance education courses, need not take permission from the Union Grants Commission (UGC) for running the open and distance learning programmes anymore.
UGC has published a list of 25 universities of the country including Utkal University which is exempted from this.
According to clause 4.10 of UGC (meant for categorization of universities for grant of graded autonomy) regulations 2018 for category 1 higher educational institutions. The commission notification said Universities may offer courses in the ODL mode, without the approval of the commission, provided it satisfies all the conditions laid down under UGC regulations 2017 and amendments from time to time.
The notification also stated that the institutions will have to complete the admission process within the given time limit. The universities should set February end as the last date for January academic session and August end as the last date for July academic session.
The commission has also directed that the institutions shall upload the admission details within 10 days from the last date of the admission in the respective academic session i.e. 10th September for July session and 10th March for January session.
SM Patnaik, Vice-Chancellor of Utkal University said, as our university comes under category 1 higher educational institutions, the university has the autonomy to start new courses. This notification will help our distance-education wing- DDCE (Directorate of Distance and Continuing Education).
They will give information to UGC about the programmes, but we will not take permission for the course we offer. We will do by obeying the regulations of the commission said Sujit Kumar Acharya, Director of DDCE.