A team led by Calicut University Pro-Vice Chancellor M. Nasser is planning to meet Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in Thiruvananthapuram on June 28 to express concerns over a recent government order barring the institution from starting admissions to courses in open and distance learning and private registration modes.
This was decided at a meeting of the Syndicate standing committee on distance education held on Wednesday. Sources told The Hindu that though Vice Chancellor M.K. Jayaraj was supposed to lead the delegation earlier, that plan had to be changed, as he was scheduled to go to New Delhi to meet National Council for Teacher Education officials. The team include Syndicate members M.M. Narayanan, K.K. Haneefa, Tom K. Thomas, and Ugin Morely, who is also the chairperson of the standing committee. The team would try to highlight the importance of distance education courses run by the University of Calicut for the students from Malabar.
The Higher Education department had said in its circular that Calicut, Kerala, Mahatma Gandhi, and Kannur universities would be able to conduct admissions to these courses only if the Sree Narayana Guru Open University did not get recognition from the University Grants Commission’s (UGC) Distance Education Bureau for its distance education courses.
The sources said that the open university had sought UGC permission for only five postgraduate courses in the distance education category whereas the University of Calicut was already running 12 such courses. Similar was the case with undergraduate courses. A large number of students, who might not get admissions to courses in government and aided colleges, were apprehensive about their future, they added.
