A demand is gaining ground to withdraw a provision in the Sreenarayana Guru Open University (SNGOU)Act, 2021, which allows only the open university to run courses through distance education or private registration modes.
Functionaries of the Save Malabar Higher Education Forum, a newly formed organisation to champion the cause of students in North Kerala districts, on Thursday pointed out that the higher education prospects of thousands had been affected by provision 72 of the Act. Many parallel colleges, which offered private registration option, have also shut shop.
P. Rasheed Ahammed, general convener of the forum, said that around 1,60,000 people have cleared Plus Two exams this year from districts under the jurisdiction of the University of Calicut. โThere are only around 33,000 seats for undergraduate (UG) courses in aided and government colleges in the university. The rest are in self-financing colleges. This year, only over 91,000 students have submitted applications to join UG courses. The number of those who sought admissions in the open university is around 8,000,โ he said. From the available data, it could be surmised that around 60,000 students were still left out of the ambit of higher education.
โThere lies the significance of distance education courses. Many students do not opt for self-financing courses because of the high fees. The distance education courses offered by the University of Calicut are comparatively cheaper. Their certificates have value similar to that of regular courses too. But the course fee of the open university is high. Many students, especially from poor families and those who study while working, cannot afford them,โ Mr. Ahammed said.
Acting on a writ petition filed by a group of students, the Kerala High Court some time ago allowed universities to run distance education courses that were yet to be launched by the open university. However, with the open university starting courses in more subjects in recent years, State universities have stopped admitting students in this stream. Mr. Ahammed, also a Syndicate member of the University of Calicut, said that not only the students, teachers and other staff engaged in the distance education stream had also been hit. The forum, led by Indian Union Muslim League MLA Abid Hussain Thangal, is planning to launch an agitation seeking a repeal of the provision.
โConflict of interestโ
Meanwhile, Higher Education Forum, a Malappuram-based organisation, has urged the Vice-Chancellor, University of Calicut, to change the universityโs standing counsel in the High Court case challenging Provision 72 of the open university Act. In a representation, its functionaries said that the university standing counsel failed to inform the High Court of its readiness to resume distance education programmes with government permission. This was mainly because the Calicut Universityโs standing counsel and the open universityโs standing counsel were the same person.
โThis dual representation constitutes a clear conflict of interest and has likely contributed to the failure to adequately represent the interests of our university,โ the forum said.
