The University Grants Commission or UGC, the higher education regulator in the country, said the recognition proposal of University of Mumbai's distance education institute will be further assessed through Expert Committee visits while the varsity said in a separate statement that the recognition is not cancelled, but the process of getting approval is still going on.
The varsity was responding to media reports which said the courses or programmes run by University of Mumbai's Institute of Distance and Open Learning (IDOL) are not recognized by the UGC. "In fact, the news is based on partial and inadequate information," it said.
"IDOL, University of Mumbai submitted the fresh application with compliances to the UGC on 5th October, 2018 to get the recognition for IDOL programs. The scrutiny of the proposal is in progress and soon the UGC is expected to respond," said University of Mumbai statement.
"Therefore", the varsity insisted that "the approval of the University of Mumbai's Institute of Distance & Open Learning has not been cancelled and the process of approval is in progress".
The Distance Education Bureau, UGC released the list of approved Distance Education Institutes and their corresponding courses for the academic year 2018-19 on October 3 last year and the Mumbai-based university did not feature in the list.
The Commission passed UGC (ODL) Regulations 2017 in the month of November 2017.
As per this Act every open and distance education institute in India is required to get recognition to the programs from the University Grants Commission.
One of the important criteria to recognize the ODL programs is to have the higher education institution i.e. University assessed and accredited by National Accreditation and Assessment Council (NAAC) and should have scored CGPA of 3.26 on a 4-point scale and should have completed 5 years.
"The assessment and accreditation process of University of Mumbai has already started, and still continues. Subsequently, the University Grants Commission made the third amendment in the regulation on September 6, 2018. As per the third amendment the ODL institutes have been given relaxation for the process of NAAC till the end of the academic year 2019 -20," the statement said.
The UGC also said the proposals of MATS University, Chhattisgarh and Sikkim Manipal University, Sikkim will be further assessed through Expert Committee visits and the proposal of Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi is being processed.
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