Calicut varsity authorities make last-ditch efforts to restore SDE recognition

Lack of full-time faculty one of the reasons for losing UGC approval

Calicut University authorities are making last-ditch efforts to restore University Grants Commission (UGC) recognition for its School of Distance Education (SDE), which has not been admitting new graduate and postgraduate students for over a year now. According to sources, one of the reasons for the SDE losing UGC approval was the lack of full-time faculty for the programme. The university had been managing with part-time teachers for preparing study materials and other works. Now, it has been decided to appoint teachers on a three-year contract. They will be relieved for a short period after three years and the contract will be renewed. Another issue was the lack of a full-time director. R. Sethunath, who was with the Department of Hindi, was recently appointed as the head of the SDE. It is learnt that the university officials had also made some technical lapses earlier while uploading the documents required to restore the recognition to the UGC website. Now, the sources said that they have been corrected. Mr. Sethunath told The Hindu on Monday that the UGC had given university time till July 31 to submit details for restoring its approval. He claimed that a clear picture might emerge within a week after that.