Tamil Nadu Open University has cancelled the B.Ed admissions for the 2018-19 batch as the University Grant Commission has not approved for the programme. 

Following the cancellation, Tamil Nadu Open University has said that it will reimburse the admission and exam fee paid to the candidates who joined the course.

UGC approval for all the Open and Distance Learning courses has been made mandatory from 2018-19. Earlier, Universities offered B.Ed courses with the approval from National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE)

The university admitted the students to the B.Ed course after receiving the approval from NCTE and appealed for UGC approval for its two-year programme.

However, UGC said the students were admitted without its approval and direction, following which we are cancelling B.Ed admission for the 2018-19 batch.

The university registrar K Rathnakumar said in a letter addressed to the students that admissions had been given with the clause that they were subject to the UGC recognition.

Since UGC has not approved the course, admission for the B.Ed 2018-19 batch is cancelled. Furthermore, the university has decided to refund the money collected from students despite spending the money on study materials and conducting classes.

For the refund of the money, students are required to submit their name, B.Ed registration number, bank account number, and other required details.

The UGC approval was made mandatory due to the streamlining of all Online Distance Learning courses from 2018-19.

"We made many attempts to get UGC approval for the BEd degree. But, we could not get it as the appellate authority meets once in a year. Now, due to the pandemic, the UGC has decided not to entertain applications for recognition or approval of UG and PG courses for 2020-21. If we offer a degree without UGC's approval, our students will not be eligible for government jobs. We don't want our students to suffer," said TNOU vice-chancellor K Parthasarathy.