Scams force MKU to revamp distance education centre
tnn | Jul 3, 2019, 04.49 AM IST
Madurai: The Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU) administration has decided to undertake a major revamp of its directorate of distance education (DDE), which has been in troubled waters and in the news for wrong reasons of late. According to the officials, five broad changes would be made to the current functioning of the DDE and the courses it offers.
The university had recently received a letter from the directorate of vigilance and anti-corruption (DVAC) which pointed to a major scam in DDE. MKU conducted a syndicate meeting immediately to grant permission to DVAC to probe the matter. Officials from MKU said that DVAC had claimed that bogus mark sheets and provisional certificates were issued to about 500 students who had not even registered for the distance education courses properly. “They (DVAC) seem to have proof for this and further, they even claimed that Rs 1lakh was demanded from each of those candidates as bribe. The certificates were issued in 2017,” a highly placed official in the university said.
With such allegations of irregularities surfacing, MKU administration decided to revamp the functioning of DDE and sort out its troubles. The officials said that this was indeed the reason for the April examination being postponed to August so as to have enough time for implementing some changes. Speaking to TOI, MKU vice-chancellor M Krishnan said that the revamp would mainly consider bringing about a change on two major aspects: increasing transparency by shifting the procedures to online and ensuring that only approved courses were being run there. “Further, in order to ensure that the courses are being run in a proper manner, we are restricting the learner centres to just four districts – Madurai, Theni, Virudhunagar and Dindigul. There would be no private centres as well hereafter,” he said. According to the DVAC complaint, three people from MKU and a handful of centres had a role in the scam.
When asked about the DVAC’s letter to MKU, Krishnan said that the university had given its nod to DVAC to conduct the inquiry but that it was yet to be held. The other changes that would be implemented in DDE are conducting examinations for distance education along with regular courses and ensuring there are enough qualified faculty for all the courses offered via distance education.
tnn | Jul 3, 2019, 04.49 AM IST
Madurai: The Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU) administration has decided to undertake a major revamp of its directorate of distance education (DDE), which has been in troubled waters and in the news for wrong reasons of late. According to the officials, five broad changes would be made to the current functioning of the DDE and the courses it offers.
The university had recently received a letter from the directorate of vigilance and anti-corruption (DVAC) which pointed to a major scam in DDE. MKU conducted a syndicate meeting immediately to grant permission to DVAC to probe the matter. Officials from MKU said that DVAC had claimed that bogus mark sheets and provisional certificates were issued to about 500 students who had not even registered for the distance education courses properly. “They (DVAC) seem to have proof for this and further, they even claimed that Rs 1lakh was demanded from each of those candidates as bribe. The certificates were issued in 2017,” a highly placed official in the university said.
With such allegations of irregularities surfacing, MKU administration decided to revamp the functioning of DDE and sort out its troubles. The officials said that this was indeed the reason for the April examination being postponed to August so as to have enough time for implementing some changes. Speaking to TOI, MKU vice-chancellor M Krishnan said that the revamp would mainly consider bringing about a change on two major aspects: increasing transparency by shifting the procedures to online and ensuring that only approved courses were being run there. “Further, in order to ensure that the courses are being run in a proper manner, we are restricting the learner centres to just four districts – Madurai, Theni, Virudhunagar and Dindigul. There would be no private centres as well hereafter,” he said. According to the DVAC complaint, three people from MKU and a handful of centres had a role in the scam.
When asked about the DVAC’s letter to MKU, Krishnan said that the university had given its nod to DVAC to conduct the inquiry but that it was yet to be held. The other changes that would be implemented in DDE are conducting examinations for distance education along with regular courses and ensuring there are enough qualified faculty for all the courses offered via distance education.
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