Student Enrollment For Online Courses Has Increased 170 Per Cent In 2022, Says UGC Chairman

New Delhi:  The students’ enrolment in online education programmes increased 170 per cent between 2021 and 2022, while in open and distance learning (ODL) programmes it increased by 41.7 per cent. As per the reports, there has also been a 38 per cent increase in the number of higher educational institutions (HEIs) offering online programs in the last one year. “The enrollment will pick up further once we announce the National Digital University together with flexible online education regulations,” UGC Chairman Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar said.

According to the data shared by the UGC Chairman, 66 HEIs in India are offering 371 online education programmes, which include 136 undergraduate courses and 235 postgraduate courses for September 2022 session, while 95 HEIs are offering 1,149 programmes in ODL mode.”Online programmes provide a window of opportunity to many students who are unable to join physically in a college or University. There is a steady increase in the number of enrolments in online programmes,” UGC Chairman tweeted.

In 2021-22, the total number of students enrolled in online undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) increased from 25,905 to 70,023, which also includes foreign students. Moreover, there has been a 38 per cent increase in the number of HEIs offering online programs in India, from 42 HEIs in 2020-21 to 58 in 2021-22. Despite a decline in number of HEIs offering courses in distance mode, the number of programmes increased from 1,066 to 1,078 during this period and total fresh admission crossed 20 lakh.

Highlighting the advantage of modern digital technologies, Mr Kumar said, “We need to take advantage of modern digital technologies to prepare engaging digital content and reach out to students using growing internet availability. At an affordable cost, students can access high quality education to become skilful and knowledgable.”

As per the reports, the majority of students registered for online education belongs to Karnataka, Maharashtra, UP, Rajasthan and Delhi. While for ODL programmes, most of the candidates are from Delhi, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and West Bengal. Most of the candidates registered for the online and ODL programmes are males and belongs to general category.