UGC refuses nod to 8 open varsity courses

The fate of seven postgraduate and BEd courses run by the Vardhman Mahaveer Open University (VMOU) of Kota hangs in the balance as the UGC’s Distance Education Bureau (DEB) has refused to give permission for the continuance of the courses.

The VMOU’s courses for which the DEB’s nod has not been granted are Masters in Business administration (MBA), Masters in Computer Application (MCA), Masters in Science (MSc) Zoology, Msc (Physics), Msc Chemistry, Msc Botany, Msc Maths and Bachelor of Education (BEd). The decision is likely to affect around 10,000 students, who take admissions in the VMOU’s courses.

VMOU, the only open university of Rajasthan, had sought the UGC approval for running 37 PG courses, but the central body gave its approval for only 29 courses, refusing permission to eight others.

Reacting over the development, VMOU vice chancellor Prof Ashok Sharma said, “VMOU is the only open universities of the state which has been granted approval for 29 courses, which is the highest among the state universities, for which VMOU is getting greeting messages from all over the country.”

He said DEB has not given permission to any open university in the country to run MBA and MCA courses. He, however, said that VMOU already has permission to run BEd course.

On the question of DEB’s decision to disallow VMOU’s eight PG courses, Sharma said the open university has a month time to give its presentation to the DEB about its courses.

KOTA: