UGC gearing up for unveiling National Digital University
By Sanjay Singh
New Delhi, November 2: With a steady rise in enrollments for online courses, which is gradually picking up further, University Grants Commission (UGC) is expected to soon announce establishing the National Digital University.
The UGC Chairman Jagadesh Kumar said there has been a steady rise in enrollments for online courses, and this would benefit large number of students which currently is close to 72,000 students from India and foreign countries, who have enrolled in 345 programmes.
“This is a 179 per cent jump from last year 25,905 students. There were 20,37,676 students enrolled across 86 HEIs and 1078 programmes. In the last academic year, 14,38,101 students were enrolled,” Kumar explained.
The UGC chairman said the focus is to create a platform where students can take advantage of modern digital technologies to prepare engaging digital content and reach out to students through internet at an affordable cost. This will help students add to their skills and knowledge required for working in various industries.
The number of enrolments for open and distance learning courses has also increased by 42 per cent. There has been a rise from around 14 lakh in 2020-21 to more than 20 lakh in 2021-22, added Kumar. “Online programmes provide a window of opportunity to many students who are unable to join physically in a college or University. There is a steady increase in the number of enrolments in online programmes,” said Kumar.
“We need to take advantage of modern digital technologies to prepare engaging digital content and reach out to students using growing internet availability. At an affordable cost, students can access high quality education to become skilful and knowledgable,” said Kumar. “This will enable the students to become more employable in the emerging job market and has the added advantage of increasing the gross enrolment ratio,” he added.
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