University of Mumbai’s distance education wing gets UGC nod for admission to 2020-21
The approval from UGC is applicable to 15 distance learning courses offered by IDOL including BA, BCom and BSc, among others.
In a relief to candidates seeking admission to distance learning courses of the University of Mumbai, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has allowed the varsity’s Institute of Distance and Open Learning (IDOL) to go ahead with admissions for the academic year 2020-21.
The approval from UGC is applicable to 15 distance learning courses offered by IDOL including BA, BCom and BSc, among others.
“We will soon begin the admission process,” the university said in a statement released Friday. Last year, over 67,000 students were admitted in the July session and 920 students in the January session.
IDOL had lost its recognition from the UGC, the apex higher education institute, in 2018 as the university of Mumbai did not have an accreditation from the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) since 2012.
However, in August last year, the UGC granted provisional recognition to IDOL to continue its courses for the academic year 2019-20, only. The recognition was granted on the condition that the university will complete its application for a NAAC accreditation and subsequently get a NAAC score of 3.6 or above on a scale of 4.
While the university had applied for a NAAC accreditation last year and submitted its institutional information for quality assessment, the process was stalled because of the Covid-19 pandemic and the shutdown.
Keeping the Covid-19 pandemic in view, the UGC on September 4 issued a gazette notification making changes in the University Grants Commission (Open and Distance Learning) Regulations, 2017 and University Grants Commission (Online Courses or Programmes) Regulations, 2018. Along the lines with these changes, the UGC has decided to grant recognition to IDOL, according to the notice uploaded on its website.
