UGC Prohibits Hotel Management, Real Estate Courses Through Distance Mode

New Delhi: After medicine and engineering, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has now prohibited hotel management and real estate courses from being offered through the distance education mode.

In a circular, the commission said the decision was taken after it received representations from various organisations. “In accordance with communication received from various regulatory bodies, programmes in hotel management, culinary studies and valuation of real estate, will not be recognised from academic session 2019-20 and onwards,” it said.

Students who have, however, enrolled in such courses through recognised distance education programmes need not worry. The circular said the programmes would continue to be recognised until the completion of the courses.

In 2017, UGC had stopped recognising courses on medicine engineering and architecture after it notified the ‘Open and Distance Learning Regulations’. Subsequently, it also prohibited distance education in agriculture too. But in the larger interest of the students already enrolled, it had requested the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) to extend support such institutes.

The UGC has also decided to extend the admission timeline for the distance education programmes.

“Since in India, the rainy season continues till August-September every year and admission in conventional programmes end in August, the schedule for admission in ODL programmes will henceforth be as follows–for academic session beginning in January, last date would be February end and for the session beginning in July, the admission process would end in September,” the circular said.