Objections raised by the influential lobby of parallel colleges appears to have prompted the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government to slow pedal on its avowed stance of establishing an Open university in the State.
With time running out for the government to meet its target of operationalising the proposed Open University of Kerala (OUK) by the next academic year, academicians fear the State might squander yet another opportunity to realise its dream that has been in the pipeline as early as 1983.
The varsity was among the promises made by the Left Democratic Front (LDF) in its pre-poll manifesto.
Based on a comprehensive report submitted by noted academician J. Prabash, who was designated the special officer for the endeavour, Higher Education Minister K.T. Jaleel had declared that the OUK would come into being from the 2020-21 academic year.
Distance learning
It was also recommended to instruct the existing universities to discontinue offering programmes through the distance and private registration modes.
Currently, the Kerala, Calicut and Kannur Universities offer 17 UG, 16 PG and two certificate courses in the distance mode. While the Mahatma Gandhi and Kerala Universities enable students to enrol for UG courses through private registration, only the former offers the opportunity to pursue PG courses in the mode.
In the 2018-19 academic year alone, 93,155 students enrolled for distance education courses and 25,488 registered through the private mode. The move to subsume private registrations had irked parallel college managements which had launched a series of demonstrations across the State.
Recently, the Parallel College Association sought the intervention of the Governor, Chief Minister and leaders of various political parties to reconsider the move.
Affecting students
According to Jiji Varghese, State president of the association, the government’s decision to do away with private registrations could affect nearly 1.25 lakh students, most of those who hailed from economically-disadvantaged sections, who depended upon parallel colleges for higher studies.
Moreover, around 25,000 workers, including teachers, of the 700-odd parallel colleges in the State would be rendered unemployed.
He added that the uncertainty over recognition of certificates issued by an Open university could also prompt job-seekers to pursue courses in other States.
The complexities associated with redeploying the teachers of distance education programmes to the proposed varsity or retaining them in the parent universities is also believed to have created a predicament.
UGC criterion
Currently, none of the four universities satisfied the University Grants Commission’s (UGC) criterion of having National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) accreditation of A+ grade with a minimum CGPA of 3.26 on a four-point scale to offer open and distance learning programmes.
“The universities have been conducting these courses on short-term exemptions. The deficiency could come to haunt us if we failed to establish the OUK before the UGC decided to strictly enforce its norms. Concerns regarding the validity of certificates issued by the university could be resolved by taking up the issue with the agencies concerned,” a source said.
