Students protest ‘closing’ of IGNOU’s on-campus courses

Acting Vice-Chancellor of IGNOU Professor M Aslam said that so far,the administration has not used the word “closed” anywhere,but has agreed that no fresh notifications for any of the on-campus courses were issued this year. In a memorandum submitted to the minister for Human Resource Development,Kapil Sibal,the students have said that in a “direct meeting” with the vice-chancellor,they were told that “IGNOU does not have the ‘mandate’ constitutionally to run any regular courses”,and the status of the courses that these students are enrolled in at present will also become ‘open’. The memorandum also states that the acting V-C has called the on-campus courses “a mistake made by the previous regime”.

Asked if these modalities were not looked at when 11 of the 21 schools at the IGNOU campus started these courses about three years ago,Aslam said,“Unfortunately,when these courses were started,the mandate of IGNOU was overlooked.”

Aslam said a committee has been constituted by the management to look into the issue of mandate for running these courses. He said IGNOU “will defend and stand by” the degrees issued in the last three years,“if need be”.

While students allege that the university is putting the future of about 700 enrolled students at stake,the administration argues that unless a change is made to the university’s mandate,it cannot run these courses and award degrees that may be challenged later.