The University Grants Commission (UGC) is introducing a new enrollment process to admit students to open and distance learning (ODL) and online programmes this academic year.
As part of the new plan, the students enrolling in ODL and online programmes will have to first register on the UGC’s Distance Education Bureau (UGC-DEB) web portals – deb.ugc.ac.in and deb.ugc.ac.in/StudentDebId – with their Academic Bank of Credit (ABC)-ID and generate a unique DEB-ID, the UGC chairman Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar said.
“This DEB-ID will be mandatory for all students enrolling in recognised ODL/Online programmes, except for foreign learners, and will remain valid for their lifetime. HEIs are urged to implement this new admission process efficiently and promote it to new learners to ensure successful adoption and operation,” the UGC Chairman added. The DEB-ID once generated on the UGC-DEB web portal will remain valid for lifelong ODL/Online learning.
This change will be effective from September 2024 and is aimed at ensuring that students enroll only in approved higher educational institutions (HEIs) offering ODL and online programmes, Mamidala said. This new procedure seeks to enhance transparency in the admissions process.
The Chairman also reiterated that the UGC (ODL Programmes and Online Programmes) Regulations, 2020 set the minimum standards for such programmes, and a list of recognised institutions is available on the UGC Distance Education Bureau website.
This standardised process in the admission comes after the recent issues with unrecognised institutions admitting students.
“It came to the notice of the Commission in the recent past that few HEIs admitted students in unrecognized ODL/Online programmes and thereby putting the future of students at stake. To address such incidents and to increase the transparency in ODL and Online mode admission, Commission in its 581st meeting held on 25th June 2024 has decided to standardize the admission procedure for students enrolling in ODL and Online mode to safeguard their academic future and career prospects,” an official statement issued in this regard said.
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