Page 488 - Compendium of UGC Regulations 1957-2023

Regulations pertaining to Credits, Academic Programmes and Award of Degrees:

(iii) Availability of laboratory: The laboratory should be in a recognised Higher Educational
Institution running a similar course in conventional mode for a period of not less than
3 years.
(iv) Ideally, total number of learners admitted at any Study Centres or Learner Support
Centres should not exceed 500 at any time, but for those located in Higher Educational
Institutions providing education to more than 1500 students, the total strength of Open
and Distance Learning mode learners at any time should not exceed 1000, subject to
fulfilment of other conditions as described under paragraph 2.
7. Conduct of End Semester or Term End Examination

(i) All Examinations for Open and Distance Learning mode programmes shall be conducted
within the Institution where the Study Centres or Learner Support Centres is located
under the direct control and responsibility of the Open and Distance Learning mode
Institution. Also, all Government Institutions like Kendriya Vidyalaya(s), Navodaya
Vidyalaya(s), Sainik School(s) etc. can also be identified as examination centre(s)
under direct overall supervision of Open University or Higher Educational Institution
offering education under the Open and Distance Learning mode.
(ii) All processes of assessment of learners in different components of Testing and
Examination shall be directly handled by the Open and Distance Learning mode
Institution and no part of the assessment shall be outsourced.
(iii) For ensuring transparency and credibility, full time faculty of the Open and Distance
Learning mode Higher Educational Institutions or qualified faculty from University
Grants Commission recognised Higher Educational Institutions only should be
associated to function as invigilators, examination superintendents, as observers etc.
(iv) The Examination Centre should have adequate seating capacity and amenities including
adequate lighting, ventilation, washrooms and clean drinking water facilities.
8. Monitoring of functioning of the Learner Support Centres or Study Centres
Generally, the Open and Distance Learning mode Higher Educational Institutions have to
manage a fairly large and well spread system with a variety of learner centric operations for
a number of heterogeneous groups of learners to meet their expectations and self-learning
requirements using multimode programme delivery. To effectively manage these challenges
and complex operations for a learner at a distance, a very dynamic interactive communication
system between Headquarters, regional centres and study centres has to be established on
priority. Thus, it is desirable that an Information and Communication Technology network
connecting the Head-Quarters, Regional Centres and Study Centre or Learner Support
Centres should be established at the earliest and used for faster and reliable operations such as:-

i. username and login ID should be generated for every learner so that learners can see
all relevant information as their studies progress in an Open and Distance Learning
programme and also provide constructive feedback for improvement in Open and
Distance Learning programme delivery;

ii. headquarters, Regional Centres and Study Centre or Learner Support Centres should
maintain a web portal giving all relevant information about the Open and Distance
Learning programmes being a delivered and the content of these should be updated at
least on a weekly basis;
iii. regional centres should collect a holistic report about all functions assigned to Study
Centres or Learner Support Centres and all aspects of quality of programme delivery

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University Grants Commission