PTU barred from admitting students in distance courses

“Since the recognition accorded to your university by DEC was upto 2011-2012,which has already expired,no fresh admission for any programme through distance mode may be given till a decision is taken by the EC in this regard… This may be complied with immediately in order to safeguard the interest of the students at large,” the letter stated.

According to sources,the PTU had applied for the renewal of its recognition in March but the case has been pending since. The delay reportedly comes in wake of the CBI registering a case against former DEC chairman and IGNOU Vice-Chancellor V N Rajasekharan Pillai in July for allegedly granting permission to two private universities to run distance education courses in violation of rules. One of these universities was the PTU.

The CBI had stated that the DEC had allowed PTU to offer some courses despite a negative opinion of the AICTE-IGNOU-UGC joint committee,which monitors the running of distance education programmes across the country. It had added that PTU admitted several lakh students in its 894 centres and made a profit of Rs 384 crore by running these courses.

PTU runs its distance education courses through PPP model and has established 42 regional centres to facilitate the programme. As per its website,its distance education programmes have been approved by the DEC. The UGC-AICTE-DEC joint committee vide letter number DEC/2010/6925 dated March 26,2010 had approved the courses. This approval was valid for two years.

While PTU Vice-Chancellor Ranish Arora could not be contacted despite repeated attempts,university authorities claimed that it is just a matter of time before it gets the approval.