KSOU derecognition: VC to meet UGC officials

Mysuru: Hopes for gaining recognition of distance education courses offered by the Karnataka State Open University was renewed with the visit of its Vice-Chancellor to New Delhi where he is expected to meet top University Grants Commission (UGC) officials. KSOU VC Prof. D. Shivalingaiah will leave for New Delhi tomorrow to attend the All India meet on Digital Initiatives Convention organised by the UGC and the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) scheduled on July 9 and 10. “The UGC has invited all vice-chancellors of State and UGC-funded universities and I am attending the event too. I will meet the UGC officials and discuss the de-recognition issue,” he told Star of Mysore.  “We have submitted compliance reports as per UGC guidelines and have submitted documents and records from the year the university began its distant education programmes,” he added. The UGC withdrew its recognition to KSOU from 2012-13 through a public notice in June 2015. Since then, KSOU has been making efforts to get back the recognition. The courses were de-recognised on June 15, 2015 for violating jurisdiction and other guidelines. The institution, since then, has had two zero years (2015-16 and 2016-17). It may be recalled here that on June 21, Shivalingaiah and Registrar Chandrashekar had met MHRD joint secretary, UGC secretary, Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Karnataka, Ratna Prabha in New Delhi. The meeting was facilitated by MHRD and its Secretary chaired it. After the meeting, Shivalingaiah said that the meeting was fruitful where the UGC officials heard KSOU’s case patiently. “We may get permission to commence admissions for the year 2017-18. The UGC is expected to communicate this in writing in one or two weeks,” he had said.