MA journalism students want KSOU contact pgm in dists

Candidates who have registered themselves for the MA Journalism course with Karnataka State Open University (KSOU) have been forced to stay at Mysuru to attend contact classes as the university had not been providing contact classes at other regional offices across the state.

As a majority of candidates registered for distance education courses are professionals, they feel it is difficult for them to take a break from work and stay at Mysuru for a week to attend contact classes.

“I work for a private firm in Bengaluru. How can I go to Mysuru to attend contact classes, that too for a week?,” asked one of the candidates who applied for the course for the 2018-19 academic year

Facility for other courses

“The university has provided contact classes at regional offices for all other subjects except journalism. When the university registers students for the course, it is the responsibility of the institution to conduct contact classes at the nearest place,” another candidate said.

However, the university authorities have a completely different take on the issue in question.

They say that very few candidates had enrolled for the course and it was difficult to contact classes for 1 or 2 students spread across various districts in the state.

80 students admitted

As per the details available from the university, over 80 candidates got admission to the MA Journalism course.

“These 80 candidates hail from various districts and how can we conduct contact classes for one or two students,” the varsity authorities sought to know.

Admitting that the university had received representations from candidates in this regard, Prof Vidyashankar S, Vice-Chancellor, Karnataka State Open University, said that they were looking at conducting contact classes at two more locations in addition to Mysuru.