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| Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Meet to discuss issues relating to recognition of distance education
degrees
Chennai: Graduates of the distance education programme of the
University of Madras, who have found it difficult to get a Central
Government job because their degrees are not recognised by the
Distance Education Council, can blame their predicament on the
transparency of their university.
“Most universities don’t even mention on their degree
[certificates] whether the student belongs to the distance education
mode or not. So they do not have any problem,” says Manjulika
Srivastava, professor at the Distance Education Council. “That
is why even reputed universities such as Delhi University have
not bothered to apply for recognition of their distance education
programmes.”
In such a scenario, Dr. Srivastava feels that the situation
faced by Madras University graduates who have been rejected
by government recruiters is a “freak case” that
can be rectified as soon as the university applies for retrospective
recognition of its distance education degrees. “Madras
University is a well recognised university doing everything
legitimately. I don’t think there should be any problem
from our side,” she said.
On Tuesday, Dr. Srivastava is organising a meeting of the Council
with the Vice-Chancellors of open universities and directors
of correspondence course institutions in New Delhi. It will
discuss issues relating to recognition, quality, funding and
government support.
G. Mohan Ram, director of the Institute of Distance Education
of Madras University, says he would raise the issue of retrospective
recognition of degrees at the meeting.
He says the university applied for recognition in 2005, as soon
as it received a circular informing that a 1995 Act stipulated
that only distance education degrees issued by DEC-recognised
institutions would be accepted for Central Government recruitment.
Recognition was finally awarded in 2007. Students who graduated
before that date are still vulnerable.
“We responded immediately. What is our fault? Why should
our students be penalised? We will fight for justice for our
students and students all over Tamil Nadu,” said Dr. Mohan
Ram, just before leaving for New Delhi.
He said a number of reputed universities, including Madurai
Kamaraj University and Bharathidasan University, wanted to bring
up the issue at the meeting and ask the DEC to clarify its norms.
Courtesy: The Hindu
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