UGC brings new procedure for admission in distance learning programmes

New Delhi, Aug 14: Starting from the academic year 2024-25, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has introduced a new enrollment procedure for students seeking admission in Open and Distance Learning (ODL) and Online Programmes.

UGC Chairman Prof. Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar told IANS on Wednesday, “This change, effective from September 2024, is aimed at ensuring that students enroll only in approved Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) to offer ODL Programmes and Online Programmes and enhancing transparency in the admissions process.

The UGC (ODL Programmes and Online Programmes) Regulations, 2020 set the minimum standards for such programmes, and a list of recognised institutions is available on the UGC Distance Education Bureau website. Recent issues with unrecognised institutions admitting students highlighted the need for this standardised procedure.”

To safeguard student interests, the UGC has developed a mechanism requiring students to register on the UGC-DEB web portal and create a unique DEB-ID using their Academic Bank of Credit (ABC)-ID.

This DEB-ID will be mandatory for all students enrolling in recognised ODL/Online programmes, except for foreign learners, and will remain valid for their lifetime. HEIs are urged to implement this new admission process efficiently and promote it to new learners to ensure successful adoption and operation, Kumar added.

UGC said that it came to the notice of the Commission in the recent past that few HEIs admitted students in unrecognised ODL/Online Programmes putting the future of students at stake. To address such incidents and to increase the transparency in ODL and Online mode admission, the Commission in its 581st meeting held on June 25, 2024, decided to standardise the admission procedure for students enrolling in ODL and Online mode.