Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: 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 said on August 14, “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.
New procedure for students enrolling in Open and Distance Learning(ODL) or Online Programmes from academic year 2024-25, academic session beginning September 2024 and onwards, to ensure enrolment only in approved HEIs and to enhance transparency in admissions – UGC (ODL Programmes and Online Programmes) Regulations, 2020, stipulated the minimum standards for offering Programmes in Open and Distance Learning mode and Online mode by the Higher Educational Institutions and accordingly, the year-wise list of universities recognised/entitled by the Commission to offer Programmes in ODL/Online mode is in public domain at the UGC Distance Education Bureau website https://deb.ugc.ac.in/.
