All diploma courses to be of one-year duration, says Lucknow University

LUCKNOW: All the diploma courses offered by Lucknow University will now be of one year, while earlier the duration of some courses was two years. In order to bring uniformity in diploma and certificate courses offered by various departments, LU has drafted new guidelines for courses and sent them to all departments on Monday.
Diploma courses have been divided in two categories. In the first category, any certificate, diploma and PG diploma course with 30 or more seats will be allowed to run only if a minimum of 20 seats are filled. The fees for such courses will mandatorily be a minimum of Rs 18,000 per semester.
In case of specialized diploma, certificate and PG diplomas having less than 30 seats, the course will be allowed only if a minimum of 15 seats are filled. The minimum fees for these courses will be Rs 37,000 per semester.
And if the university gets University Grants Commission approval for running the course online, the minimum fees will be Rs 18,000 per semester and minimum seats will be 30.
However, the students pursuing diploma courses will not be counted as regular students, but will be given permission to use e-resources and reading room facility. The government employees, defence personnel and corporate-sponsored candidates taking admission in diploma courses will have to shell out more money than others.
The development fee, which is part of the total, will be Rs 19,000, significantly higher than Rs 4,000 for other candidates.