The University Grants Commission (UGC) has invited suggestions and comments from various stakeholders on draft amendments of Open and Distance Learning (ODL) programmes and online programmes. The step has been taken to ensure a transparent and participatory approach to have a simple ODL and online programme framework.

The stakeholders can give their comments latest by March 15 at the official website of the Distance Education Bureau — deb.ugc.ac.in. According to the UGC, the new amendments and the approach of moving forward with having all the stakeholders together are to ensure a quality education system.

The new draft amendments made by UGC has made the National Assessment Accreditation Council (NAAC) and National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) assessment ratings valid for the next three academic years. The ratings were only valid till 2020-21 earlier.

According to the draft, the commission will review the ratings after three academic years. The ratings are valid for sessions 2021-2022, 2022-2023, and 2023-2024. The next review by the commission will be done in the academic session 2024-2025 which will begin from July 2024 and onwards.

The public notice released by the commission on February 28 reads, “Keeping in view National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 recommendation to have Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) of 50% by 2035 and to further promote ODL and online education, UGC constituted an expert committee to review existing ODL and online regulatory framework while ensuring quality, driven by simplified recognition system and processes.”

The notice further says that the committee has accepted the report and have made draft amendments which are now open for feedback from the stakeholders. For providing the comments, stakeholders can click on the link ‘Seeking comments.suggestions on Draft Amendments’. After which a web page will open where the person has to fill in their details. They can after that provide comments on the draft.

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