PATNA: The 43-year-old Directorate of
Distance Education (DDE) of
Patna University (PU) is facing closure due to the reported indifference of the authorities concerned.
The DDE stopped taking admission to its various undergraduate and postgraduate courses after they were derecognized by the
Distance Education Bureau (DEB) of the UGC during the 2016-17 session.
"The delay in submission of an application for renewal and certain shortcomings in its course materials were major reasons for derecognition of the DDE courses," said a source.
PU vice-chancellor Rash Bihari Prasad Singh, who earlier served as the VC of Nalanda Open University, has been trying to get the DDE courses recognized again. However, the main problem is that PU has not yet been accredited by the
National Assessment and Accreditation Council (
NAAC).
According to the new guidelines of the DEB, only NAAC accredited universities will be allowed to run distance education courses. "Even though PU has started the accreditation exercise, the process is not likely to be completed before the next academic session. In the meantime, we will try to adjust some DDE students in the regular courses in different PU colleges," the VC said.
Of late, the DDE has been facing acute financial crisis owing to non-admission of students. Being run under self-financing mode, the directorate is finding it difficult to make payment of salaries to all its officers and staff.
Established as the Institute of Correspondence Courses in 1974, the DDE offers three-year degree courses in arts and commerce, besides postgraduate diploma courses in library and information science, journalism and mass communication, financial management, operations management and marketing management.
Surprisingly, all the DDE activities were being managed with less than 50 employees. It was completely self-dependent and often extended financial help to the fund-starved PU at times of crisis.
Representative image
