UGC’s recognition to DDE extended for another year

PATNA: In view of the Covid-19 pandemic, the University Grants Commission (UGC) will continue to grant recognition to the Directorate of Distance Education (DDE) of Patna University (PU) for one more year (2020-21).

“The directorate was derecognized by the UGC three years ago on account of various shortcomings. However, recognition was restored last year only for one session on the condition that it would meet all the requirements within the given time frame,” DDE chief Javed Hayat told this newspaper on Thursday.

The most important condition was that PU must be accredited by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council with at least a 3.26 CGPA. The university, however, scored only 2.55 CGPA and B+ grade. Later it approached the UGC with a request to consider its demand for extending the period of recognition in view of the fact that the university had already met most of the other conditions and also applied for reaccreditation.

Welcoming the UGC’s decision, PU students’ welfare dean N K Jha said, “Now, the university will try its best to improve its NAAC score by streamlining the academic activities and modernizing the infrastructure. The process of admission to various undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) courses run by the DDE will also be started soon.”

Courses under the DDE are mostly preferred by working professionals as they are not required to attend regular classes daily. Besides, students, who fail to compete in the written entrance test for admission to the three-year degree courses in different colleges of PU, also secure admission in the directorate.

Established in 1974 as Institute of Correspondence Courses, it runs UG courses in history, geography, English, Hindi, Urdu, computer applications and commerce as well as PG diploma courses in marketing management, financial management, library science, journalism and others.