The Government allowed the top engineering and MBA institutes to offer courses to students through distance and mixed mode, a move that could prove to be a major breakthrough for high quality distance learning.
The University Grant Commission (UGC), All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and Distance Education Council (DEC) are three regulatory and approval agencies that will jointly monitor the process. The joint panel also aims to minimize the usual long drawn out bureaucratic process. While the AICTE will be in charge of the technical institutes and courses, the UGC will handle other universities and the DEC will take care of overall regulation.
The panel will also design curriculum and learning methods along with certain standards to promote uniformity in open and mixed (distance plus institutional) education.
