UGC approves Regulation allowing institutions to offer Online Courses; practical oriented courses to remain Offline

NEW DELHI, MAY 25: The University Grants Commission has approved Higher Educational Institutions to offer online courses in line with their regular programs. The institutions can start courses from 2018-19 academic session and the Regulation is aimed at attaining the target of 30 percent Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) by 2020.

The apex higher education regulator in its meeting held on May 24 approved UGC (Online Courses) Regulations, 2018 to allow Institutions to offer Certificate, Diploma and Degree Programmes in full-fledged online mode.

However, the institutions will not be allowed offer online courses in programmes requiring Practical/ Laboratory Courses as a curricular requirement.

As per the UGC notification “The Higher Educational Institutions will be eligible to offer Online Programmes if they have been in existence for at least five years and are accredited by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) with a valid minimum score of 3.26 on a 4-point scale; and should be in the top-100 in overall category in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) for at least two years in the previous three years.”

However, NAAC and NIRF conditions shall not be applicable to existing government Open Universities till NAAC or similar accreditation system or NIRF are made available.

Institutions have been allowed to offer online programmes in only those disciplines in which it has already been offering the same at graduation level in regular mode (of classroom teaching) or in Open and Distance Learning mode and from which at least one batch has been graduated.

The Examinations of the online courses shall be conducted in proctored mode and in conformity with any norms for such examinations stipulated by the commission. The online learning shall have minimum four quadrants: video lectures, e-content, self-assessment and discussion forum to clarify doubts.