UGC nod to IDOL for extension of admissions till month-end
After the delay in commencement of admissions owing to lack of accreditation, the Institute of Distance and Open Learning (IDOL) – the distance education wing of University of Mumbai (MU) – will keep admissions open till the end of this month.
The institute hopes to confirm more applicants compared to last year after the University Grants Commission (UGC) approved the extension of deadline for admissions.
“Officially, we have permission to conduct admission till the end of this month, but we have kept September 25 as the deadline. Over 65,000 students have already confirmed admissions by payment of fees and we are waiting for another 2,000 students to complete the process by Wednesday,” said Vinod Malale, public relations officer, IDOL. Last year, 67,000 students had confirmed admissions at IDOL.
HT had earlier reported how despite 70,000 registrations at the start of the admissions process this year, barely 42,614 students had confirmed admissions by paying fees by the end of the earlier admission deadline in the last week of August. Many blamed this on the constant delay in admissions, first due to lack of UGC affiliation and then due to heavy rains when many students complained about not being able to reach the university or conduct online transactions due to electricity malfunctioning in some parts of the state.
In June 2017, UGC issued a notification to regulate distance learning courses offered across the country, which required institutes to seek the regulator’s recognition for these courses.
IDOL did not figure in UGC’s first list of recognised institutes, issued in August 2018, as the MU’s National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) grading had expired. IDOL also failed to show up in two consecutive updated UGC lists after that – one in January and another in the last week of June this year.
IDOL finally made it to the list released by UGC on July 31, following which admissions commenced. “Once we extended the admissions deadline to the first week of September, more students managed to complete the process. Post-graduate admissions also took place in the last two weeks and therefore, the number of admissions has gone up,” said Malale.
