PhD back in distance mode

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 30

After a gap of seven years, IGNOU and state open universities have been permitted to offer PhD and MPhil programmes (non-technical courses) in distance mode, HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar said today.

Following a 2009 UGC regulation, some open universities had stopped offering PhD in distance mode. IGNOU, however, had continued its research programmes in distance mode till 2014.

In 2012, the charge of the Distance Education Council was transferred from IGNOU to UGC. Subsequently, it was renamed the Distance Education Bureau. The bureau came up with a new set of rules asking open universities to seek UGC approval for all their courses every year.

The universities were also required to submit an affidavit stating that they would not offer any course online, nor would they offer a research progarmme. IGNOU, therefore, discontinued its research programmes in 2014.

The decision to allow research programmes in distance mode was taken last week. Quality of research programmes in distance mode was among the reasons why UGC issued the 2009 regulation.