No distance education for technical courses

BANGALORE: Squashing the dreams of several universities, including Bangalore University, Minister for Higher Education V S Acharya dismissed any talks of universities exploring distance education mode for technical courses citing the future of the students.The minister informed vice chancellors and Higher Education Department officials at the general body meeting of the Karnataka State Higher Education Council held here on Thursday, that All India Council for Technical Education does not permit universities to conduct professional courses through distance education mode. Further, the Supreme Court too has ruled against distance mode for professional courses. Citing these rulings, he asked the interested vice chancellors to abandon the plan to introduce distance education mode for technical courses for the future of the students who might enroll into these courses. “They will come out of these colleges and find that their education would not be recognised anywhere.We do not want our students to suffer,” he said.Karnataka State Open University and Visvesvaraya Technological University vice chancellors agreed to it when arguments on loss of revenue was shot down by the principal secretary for higher education Latha Krishna Rao, who emphatically ruled out treating distance education courses as a source for revenue.She said that universities should concentrate on teaching and research instead.Among other decisions, the minister said that the universities have been asked to explore the possibility of setting up Choice Based Credit System (CBCS) of education for under-graduate courses and the report will be submitted to the department soon. They will also have to submit individual reports to the department on rejuvenating undergraduate and post-graduate courses.Another report on feasibility of setting up an innovative university in Mysore is expected to be compiled soon. The report will be later sent to the Central government for allocation of grant.Student grantsKannada Development Board’s proposal to set up Kannada chairs in four foreign universities has been approved by the government and Rs 1 crore would be given to each chair, announced the minister.