Hyderabad: The UGC has approved online courses and issued regulations specifying eligibility criteria.
The UGC Online Course Regulations, 2018 says a higher education institution is eligible if it is at least five years old, is accredited by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council with a minimum score of 3.26/4 and has been in the top 100 in the overall category in the National Institutional Ranking Framework for at least two years in the previous three years.
This has been done to achieve the gross enrollment ratio (percentage of the eligible population of students aged between18-25 enrolled for higher education) target that has been set at 30 per cent by 2020.
Research scholars will be admitted not based on viva voice alone but with a greater weightage for the written test. The UGC’s decision in 2016 to make oral interviews the sole criteria for admission had generated a lot of student protests as many felt that it would be unfair on students who did not have strong communication skills. Many students felt that the written test, which was used only as a qualifier to attend the exams, should also be given weightage because it was based on important portions of the student’s field. Educational experts have lauded the move.
Mr Laxmi Rao from the Save Education Society said “SC/ST students and other minorities were suffering due to the earlier decision as they had poor communication skills. The new system gives 70 per cent weightage to the written test and 30 per cent to the interview.” Students availing reservation will need only 45 per cent marks for the entrance exam for MPhil and PhD programmes.
