IGNOU Goa to Offer Degrees at par with Full-time Courses

According to a circular released on Friday, February 23,University Grants Commission(UGC) deemed degrees, certificates and diploma awarded through distance mode at par with the courses offered through correspondence after completing full-timeeducation at colleges.

There is no otherUGCrecognised institution in Goa that offers distance education in the state. Therefore, the news that IGNOU will now grant authorized degrees at par with the regular courses has been a welcome news for the students.IGNOU Goais located in Porvorim and was established through an Act passed by the parliament.

Students will now be allowed to apply for postgraduate programmes after pursuing distance courses from IGNOU as thedegreeswill not be considered equivalent to degrees awarded after full-time programmes.

TheUGC circularadded that the open anddistance education systemin India is essential in order to achieve the gross enrolment ratio target and expanding the reach of higher education without compromising the quality.

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It also added that if thedistance education degreesare not recognized by the employers then students will not be able to trust open/ distance education. It will beat the purpose of higher education, the circular mentioned.

However, according to the UGC (open and distance learning) regulations 2017, universities offering distance courses cannot offer engineering, dentistry, medicine, pharmacy, architecture, nursing, physiotherapy as these courses requirepractical trainingthat cannot be imparted in distance mode.

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All the other programmes offered by distance education universities recognised by DEC/UGC, will be offered by IGNOU Goa.