Drastic decline in admissions to PTU distance learning programme

Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, April 3

The distance education programme of Punjab Technical University (PTU), which in the past generated about Rs 100 crore annually by way of over 1.6 lakh admissions pan India, reportedly witnessed only 200 admissions this time.

This despite the fact that the PTU relaunched the distance education programme through its new digital programme titled "EDVantage" on December 10 and had even advertised it well.

Concerned about the drastic fall in the revenue of the university, which has been the only self-sustaining state university in the state, Technical Education Minister Madan Mohan Mittal visited the campus recently and held a meeting with the staff. Officiating PTU Vice-Chancellor and Secretary, Technical Education, Rakesh Verma also joined him in taking feedback from the staff on how to increase admissions for the programme.

Since half of the corpus of this BJP-managed university amounting to Rs 550 crore is set to go to the newly set up Maharaja Ranjit Singh State Technical University, Bathinda, (which is under the SAD as per the internal understanding in the alliance), the BJP is worried, especially as there is no running income to the campus for the past two years.

The minister asked the staff to find out positive points in the old scheme and weak points in the new one so as to take corrective measures. The staff reportedly told the minister that the fee of the distance education programme had been doubled and brought on par with regular courses, which perhaps did not go down well with prospective students. A bigger problem was that the PTU, which had learning centres across India and even abroad, had been asked by the UGC to confine its operations within Punjab only, they said.

Three years ago, the PTU had about 60,000 students from Punjab itself, but the new admissions were just 0.33 per cent of the old strength, sources said. Even private universities in the state, including Lovely Professional University, have also been offering distance learning courses. There has been no enrolment in the distance education programme for two years.