The University Grants Commission (UGC) has granted approval to the University of Delhi (DU) to start five online courses, that would be made public from January 2020.
On 1st October 2019, the University of Delhi got the green light to conduct five online undergraduate courses by the UGC from January 2020 by the School of Open Learning (SoL). The courses provided by DU will be made made available for five subjects: B.A. Programme, B.A. (Hons.) English, B.A. (Hons.) Political Science, B.Com, and B. Com (Hons.).
An official from UGC spoke to NDTV and said that SOL will upload the learning materials on its website by November this year and start enrolling students in the program from January 2020. The courses will be made available for students in India as well as those abroad, and are being introduced to attract global students to study at the University of Delhi.
The letter of intent (LoI) was issued by the UGC to the university on 16th September 2019, as reported by DNA India.
“These courses actually belong to the School of Open Learning (SOL) but by January they will become online courses and will be available all around the world,” a senior official was quoted by a news daily.
“One of the officials of the Delhi University said that the proposal of online courses was put forward by 22 universities but UGC gave permission to only four universities out of which the Delhi University is one,” the report said.
Dr CS Dubey, Director of the Campus of SOL, said that the online courses will be available not just in India, but students from any country can take admission in the courses. Earlier, Dubey had also said that the DU is planning to conduct 30 per cent of its exams online in a phased manner.
Students too appreciated this. Sabaa, a second year B.A. (Hons.) English said, “I think it is a great opportunity being offered by the University. Not only is it good for integrating DU in the global educational structure, every year the cut-offs become impossible to achieve. This way, those who didn’t clear the cut-offs or are outstation students without the means to move to Delhi for studying, can also enrol in the University. “
Students can look for further details at du.ac.in, the university’s official website.
Feature Image Credits: DU Beat Archives.
Shreya Juyal