Patna: Nalanda Open University (NOU), the only open university imparting higher education in distance mode to thousands of youths residing in rural and backward regions of the state for the last 37 years, is likely to get a facelift soon. The university will expand its academic horizon by introducing new job-oriented courses suited to the demands of the state’s youths and also promoting quality research among its faculties and students. The NOU vice-chancellor (VC) Ravindra Kumar, who joined his new assignment four days back, told this newspaper that the university has recently been sanctioned a grant of Rs 20 crore for developing its academic and infrastructural growth under the Prime Minister Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (PM-USHA) programme. “A team from the education ministry is also visiting NOU on Monday regarding this. The university will utilise the fund to augment its academic infrastructure and promote research work on the campus,” he said. The VC said his first priority would be to get the Distance Education Bureau (DEB)’s recognition of all its traditional undergraduate (UG) courses and four postgraduate (PG) courses restored as soon as possible. Earlier, the DEB had de-recognised all the university’s UG and PG courses owing to various shortcomings. However, with the removal of these shortcomings, the courses are gradually getting recognised. The university has already started preparing the self learning materials (SLM) for different subjects according to choice based credit system for the four-year undergraduate academic programmes of National Education Policy-2020. The university will soon constitute a committee of experts to validate the newly framed courses of study. The courses, thus, prepared would be finally approved by the chancellor on the recommendation of the Bihar State Higher Education Council. The SLM of at least the first two semesters of all the UG programmes would be displayed on the university’s website by mid-Feb so that the DEB may accord to its recognition to the UG courses from the current session itself. Kumar further said that from now onwards given its poor grade (Grade-C) from the NAAC, emphasis would be given to improving the standard of teaching and research in the university. The number of online classes would be increased and scholars would be provided with financial grants from the university for carrying out meaningful research on topics of societal relevance. “The university may create a corpus fund of the tune of Rs one to two crore for helping the research scholars financially,” he said. He further pointed out that the university would initiate a fresh move for the budgetary allocation for NOU. He expressed his surprise over the fact that right since its inception in 1987, the university had never sought any financial assistance from the govt and it had been managing its academic activities somehow from its internal resources. “However, now the university is facing difficulties in managing its activities sans govt grants,” the VC said, adding that he has recently met CM Nitish Kumar in this connection and he has assured him of all possible help. The university, when developed properly, would attract more and more students, thereby increasing the state’s gross enrolment in higher education to a considerable extent, he added. Patna: Nalanda Open University (NOU), the only open university imparting higher education in distance mode to thousands of youths residing in rural and backward regions of the state for the last 37 years, is likely to get a facelift soon. The university will expand its academic horizon by introducing new job-oriented courses suited to the demands of the state’s youths and also promoting quality research among its faculties and students. The NOU vice-chancellor (VC) Ravindra Kumar, who joined his new assignment four days back, told this newspaper that the university has recently been sanctioned a grant of Rs 20 crore for developing its academic and infrastructural growth under the Prime Minister Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (PM-USHA) programme. “A team from the education ministry is also visiting NOU on Monday regarding this. The university will utilise the fund to augment its academic infrastructure and promote research work on the campus,” he said. The VC said his first priority would be to get the Distance Education Bureau (DEB)’s recognition of all its traditional undergraduate (UG) courses and four postgraduate (PG) courses restored as soon as possible. Earlier, the DEB had de-recognised all the university’s UG and PG courses owing to various shortcomings. However, with the removal of these shortcomings, the courses are gradually getting recognised. The university has already started preparing the self learning materials (SLM) for different subjects according to choice based credit system for the four-year undergraduate academic programmes of National Education Policy-2020. The university will soon constitute a committee of experts to validate the newly framed courses of study. The courses, thus, prepared would be finally approved by the chancellor on the recommendation of the Bihar State Higher Education Council. The SLM of at least the first two semesters of all the UG programmes would be displayed on the university’s website by mid-Feb so that the DEB may accord to its recognition to the UG courses from the current session itself. Kumar further said that from now onwards given its poor grade (Grade-C) from the NAAC, emphasis would be given to improving the standard of teaching and research in the university. The number of online classes would be increased and scholars would be provided with financial grants from the university for carrying out meaningful research on topics of societal relevance. “The university may create a corpus fund of the tune of Rs one to two crore for helping the research scholars financially,” he said. He further pointed out that the university would initiate a fresh move for the budgetary allocation for NOU. He expressed his surprise over the fact that right since its inception in 1987, the university had never sought any financial assistance from the govt and it had been managing its academic activities somehow from its internal resources. “However, now the university is facing difficulties in managing its activities sans govt grants,” the VC said, adding that he has recently met CM Nitish Kumar in this connection and he has assured him of all possible help. The university, when developed properly, would attract more and more students, thereby increasing the state’s gross enrolment in higher education to a considerable extent, he added.
