AICTE validates IGNOU's B Tech degrees issued in past

In a relief to hundreds of students, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has declared the IGNOU's B Tech degrees as valid which were awarded to its students up to 2009-10 batch on successful completion of their courses in open and distance learning mode.

The technical regulator, however, barred the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) from offering any engineering programme in open and distance learning mode in future.

This comes after the Supreme Court, while hearing a petition filed by some of the students on July 30, held that AICTE's approval for the IGNOU’s B Tech degree/diplomas was not necessary.

About 3,000 students had obtained B Tech degree from the open university.

The future of these students were are stake since the erstwhile distance education council (DEC) directed the IGNOU in July 2009 to stop offering B Tech programmes in open and distance learning mode, noting that the programmes were not approved by the AICTE.

The DEC, however, remained silent on the validity of the degrees issued to the students. It also did not frame any guidelines for validating the degrees of the students despite an instruction from the human resource development (HRD) ministry.

The decision to recognise the B Tech degree of the IGNOU students were taken by the AICTE's executive committee at its meeting recently.

“The AICTE honours the judgment of the Supreme Court and has no objection for the B Tech degree/diploma in engineering awarded by the IGNOU to the students who were enrolled upto academic year 2009-10,” the technical education regulator said in an official order.

These B Tech degrees/diploma should be treated as valid “as a special case.”

“But, it could not be taken as a precedence,” the AICTE noted.

The technical education regulator asked the IGNOU not to offer any technical programme in open and distance learning mode in future which require “which have extensive laboratory component.”