Mahatma Gandhi University bid for online courses won’t help
Such courses not in varsity’s Act and Statute
KOCHI: Even as the MG University proceeds to start online courses to substitute off-campus centres, it is being pointed out that such courses may not stand the test of law as the Act and Statute of the varsity have not included online courses in their purview.
Certain MGU Syndicate members are understood to be averse to running online courses due to this factor. It is also being pointed out that the UGC has allowed off-campus centres within the territorial jurisdiction of the state and not just the university and hence current moves against the functioning of the off-campus centres within Kerala and outside the jurisdiction of MGU are not justified.
In fact, in a petition filed by the All Kerala Private College Teachers Association (AKPCTA) against the functioning of off-campus centres in 2003, the Supreme Court had refused to interfere in its functioning.
In a letter addressed to Vice-Chancellor of MGU on July 8, 2014, the UGC made it clear that it had in 2009 ordered “all the universities/state governments to stop all the states/state private universities in the state from operating beyond the territorial jurisdiction of the state in any manner either in the form of off-campus/study centre/affiliated college and centres operating through franchisees.”
Senior university officials pointed out that in the light of this, the current move to enforce closing down of 63 such off-campus centres was not justified.
The aggrieved co-ordinators of these 63 centres are now set to approach the Supreme Court to enable them to run the centres.
The May 7 meeting of the MGU Syndicate had also taken the decision to limit the operation of the off-campus centres within the state.
The Governor P Sathasivam who is the chancellor of the university is understood to have taken a stand against running off-campus centres outside the territorial jurisdiction of the university.
