14 V-Cs to attend BAOU meeting on distance learning programme

Prof A K Singh,BAOU Vice Chancellor,who is also a DEC board member,said,“BAOU is the only full-fledged open university in Gujarat that has started a movement for bettering the quality of distance education programmes.”

He said two meetings between DEC board members and BAOU were conducted in September 2008 and February 2009.

While accreditation is given to a few open universities,it is important to set guidelines for maintaining the quality,said Prof Singh.

He said,“If gross enrolment ratio increases to 14 per cent keeping 11th Fifth Plan report in mind,the distance learning programme enrolment will be 40 per cent of the higher education enrolment across India.”

“This is according to National Knowledge Commission and Human Resource Department (recommendations),” said Singh.

A meeting on the quality assurance mechanism to monitor study material and the course run by the open universities will be convened on June 11 at BAOU.

Vice-chancellors of 14 states are expected to attend the meet along with Prof Rajshekhar Pillai,Vice Chancellor of BAU( also DEC Board Chairman) and Prof H S Ranganath,the Director of the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC).

Prof Singh said,“The government has also involved conventional universities in distance learning. Ahmedabad-based St Xavier’s College,Navsari Agriculture University (NAU) and Anand Agriculture University (AAU) have come forward to start distance learning courses.”

Meanwhile,B G Patel,the vice Chancellor of the Sardar Patel University,said,“We are going to start a management course at SPU by 2010 for which a memorandum has been signed with Pune University.”