Draft rules allow autonomous colleges to offer online courses

Autonomous colleges in India will be able to offer online and distance education programmes from the 2022-23 academic session without prior approval from the University Grants Commission, provided they meet certain criteria, according to modified rules suggested by the higher education regulator. Higher education institutions with valid accreditation by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council, a minimum score of 3.26 on a 4-point scale, or a rank in the top 100 in the university or corresponding categories of the National Institutional Ranking Framework at least twice in three preceding cycles at the time of application, will be permitted to offer distance and online learning without the prior approval of the Commission, the amended guidelines recommend. The higher education institutions may collaborate with technology service providers for the purposes of technology maintenance, learning platform, information and communications technology support, including production and animation, tech support for proctored examination, cloud support, The draft amendments have proposed that admission to these online and distance courses shall be done through minimum level qualifications only and “higher percentage as cut off for admission shall not be insisted” for admission to these courses. “Higher educational institutions shall have an option either to have 100% inhouse content development or have minimum 60% in-house content development, and maximum 40% external contents from open educational resources / massive open online courses and such other modes, and the higher educational institutions shall provide options to the students for accumulating credits,” the amended norms stated.