UGC approval awaited for two postgraduate courses

Vikas Sharma

Tribune News Service

Jammu, August 3

Although approved in the 101st Syndicate meeting of the University of Jammu (JU) in March, 2013, the Directorate of Distance Education (DDE) has still not got the UGC nod for its two post-graduate (PG) courses in economics and political science, leaving hundreds of eligible aspirants in a fix.

Sources said after the decision was taken in the Syndicate meeting, JU started the courses in academic session 2014-15 without the mandatory approval of the Distance Education Bureau (DEB), the apex body for regulation of distance education programmes. Pertinently, DEB had replaced Distance Education Council (DEC) which earlier was an all-India governing body to give permission to run courses through distance mode in higher education.

“We were hoping to get the approval from the UGC to introduce both programmes but with no such communiqué coming regarding the PG courses, the DDE has issued an admission notification for the other courses of English, Sociology, Hindi, Dogri, Urdu, Commerce and Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management (PGDBM),” the sources said.

However, the aggrieved aspirants are blaming the JU authorities for the delay in getting the approval from the UGC. “With every single year, the strength of aspirants for post-graduation in Political Science and Economics through distance mode is increasing but the delay in getting UGC approval is a cause for concern,” said Preeti, an aspirant.

Prof Dhian Singh Bhau, Director, DDE, said: “We are planning to revive important subjects from this academic session for the benefit of students who want to pursue education through distance mode but the UGC approval is still pending”.