IGNOU B.Tech in Distance Education Mode
Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has suddently stopped fresh admissions to its BTech distance education courses, landing in a tizzy a large number of students who are undergoing the course currently and have passed out.
The IGNOU's decision follows the AICTE's latest stand against running of professional courses in the distance education mode.
The IGNOU website http://www.ignou.ac.in/ignou/aboutignou/school/soet/programmes is now (at 6.15 pm on Dec 20) silent on BTech distance education course whereas it has listed other distance courses including PhD in Civil and Mechanical Engineering.
"However we clarified on it. We are not running BTech as a first degree course. We are also not enrolling students who had just passed out from Plus Two. The IGNOU course is for working personnel. So our course does not clash with AICTE stipulations. The AICTE is now convinced of our position, so there is no problem. We will continue the BTech course this year itself," he said.
When his attention was brought to the fact that the IGNOU website had removed BTech from its list of courses offered on distant mode, he said he was unaware of it and will look into it.
An IGNOU official said earlier that the decision not to conduct admission to BTech courses in the coming January was taken by IGNOU following a query from the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development in this regard.
"This is only a temporary decision. The varsity may or may not revoke it," the official had told Mathrubhumi Education on Monday.
Since the introduction of the BTech in distance mode by IGNOU in the early 1990s, a large number of employed personnel across the country who met the eligibility criteria like having a Diploma in concerned subjects , had secured the engineering degree. However several of those who had graduated as engineers in this manner in recent years and are now undergoing the course are an anxious lot today. They are worried whether they will be able to take advantage of the degree for the furtherence of their careers. Will the time and money spent on the course turn out to be a sheer waste is the question that dominates their minds now.
However, when contacted, the official said that several of its BTech degree holders have already taken advantage, by securing promotions and increments on the strength of its BTech degree. He said that IGNOU Courses had been running BTech courses so far at colleges approved by AICTE and hence there was no cause for any alarm.
He further said that it was the prerogative of a university to start and stop a course . "Once a university finds that a particular course has met its objective, the university will stop its running," he said.
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