The University Grants Commission (UGC) has officially approved three more universities to offer full-fledged online degree courses.

The commission has now permitted Vignan’s Foundation for Science, Technology and Research, Andhra Pradesh; Kalasalingam Academy of Research and Higher Education,Tamil Nadu, and Lovely Professional University, Punjab to provide online degree programmes. Apart from these, there were 49 additional universities which were approved earlier. 

These newly approved universities will offer online degree programmes such as BA in Business Administration in various disciplines and Masters in Computer Application, Commerce, Science, Arts etc.

The UGC has released the complete list of online programmes approved by the UGC along with the University names. The commission had announced that the July academic session will commence from November 2021 onwards, for which the deadline is till December 15, under exceptional circumstances. 

As per the UGC regulations, the newly approved universities will be able to offer the online degree programmes as long as they comply with the NAAC or NIRF ranking requirements. 

However, the universities can discontinue the programmes and inform the commission accordingly. On July 29, the government directed the parliament to curb the academic losses which occurred in the times of COVID-19 pandemic. 

A total of 42 new universities were allowed by the UGC to offer various programmes through the online mode. In October 2021, UGC gave the nod to 7 institutions to offer online degree programmes from the academic year 2021-22. However, the total number of universities approved by UGC has increased to 52. 

In the recently updated list, the Jamia Millia Islamia, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala has increased the number of online courses.

Also Read: 

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• UGC Permits 7 More Institutions to Offer Online Degree Courses from Academic Year 2021-22