Representational image. Image courtesy: www.ugc.ac.in

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has extended the application deadline for Open And Distance Learning (ODL) mode and other online courses to 30 April, 2021, reports said.

According to a report in NDTV, candidates can now apply for admissions to different courses by visiting the official website ugc.ac.in.

As per the official notification, the UGC took this decision in its 550th meeting on 18 February. The commission has asked the Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) to take note of the development and upload the admission details by 15 May, 2021, on the UGC DEB portal. After the latest development, participating colleges can keep accepting applications from aspirants for ODL and online programmes.

The session has been changed from January 2021 to February-March 2021 due to the extraordinary circumstances caused by COVID-19 , as per the notification.

All the recognised and entitled HEIs will be updating the development of the UGC ODL and online courses deadline on their official websites.

The commission has also instructed HEIs to “ensure compliance in letter and spirit of the UGC (Open and Distance Learning Programmes and Online Programmes) regulations 2020”.

The list of HEIs who can start full-fledged online programmes has also been released on the website of UGC on 11 March.

Meanwhile, UGC has also uploaded a draft of regulations for joint, dual and twinning degree programmes and has invited suggestions from the public. The draft regulations are for collaborations between the top 100 universities (part of the National Institutional Ranking Framework, NIRF) with the top 500 international universities.

The draft regulations have been placed in the public domain till Monday, 15 March. All the stakeholders including academicians have been asked to send their suggestions about the draft.