UGC ban on psychology degrees in distance-education mode leaves 1.3 lakh students in limbo

The University Grants Commission’s decision to ban distance-learning programmes in psychology has impacted the further education and careers of roughly 1.3 lakh students, sources in the UGC say. The commission’s Distance Education Bureau (DEB) has been receiving complaints and queries almost daily on the matter.

As per sources, the UGC raised the issue in a meeting with the education ministry, asking that universities be allowed to offer BSc Psychology (Hons) in distance mode.

Two months ago, the UGC announced the discontinuation of online and distance learning (ODL) programmes in allied and healthcare sciences, including psychology degrees. Till now, distance-learning programmes in BA, BSc, MA and MSc Psychology were being offered by universities following approval of the UGC’s DEB.

This year, no admission has taken place in this course and tens of thousands of already-enrolled and former students have been affected. The decision has impacted their further education and employment prospects.

The decision by the commission was tabled at its 592nd meeting. The following announcement stated that these courses, such as psychology, microbiology, food and nutrition science, biotechnology and clinical nutrition and dietitian, now fall within the purview of the National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions, set up through the NCAHP Act in 2021.

NCAHP and BSc Psychology

Until 2021, the allied health sciences sector was not centrally-regulated and in many states, entirely unregulated, leading to great disparities in curriculum, quality and monitoring standards across states. It also led to the mushrooming of fake colleges and even fake regulatory agencies in the allied health sciences.

The NCAHP is now settling down as the only central statutory body governing the sector and in April, published model curricula for 10 courses; more followed later.

The NCAHP regulates 10 categories of allied healthcare professions and one of them is “community care, behavioural health sciences and other professionals”. There are 15 professions listed under this, including “psychologist”, “behavioural analysis”, “integrated behaviour health counsellor”, and “mental health support workers” – fields where an overlap with existing psychology programmes is likely.

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In July, UGC stopped universities from offering allied health science courses, including psychology, in ODL format and withdrew existing permissions. It told institutions that any degree or diploma awarded through distance learning formats would be deemed invalid.

MA, BA Psychology ‘very popular’

As per an official of the commission, the discontinuation has affected close to 1,30,000 students who were enrolled in or had graduated from the course.

“The students who have passed out from this course, have not been able to go for higher studies. The ones who are in the first and second year are also worried about the future of the course. It was a very popular course so such a decision was uncalled for and we fear legal troubles for UGC. This decision on the other hand goes against the very spirit of National Education Policy (NEP),” said an official on condition of anonymity.

The former principal of Delhi University’s School of Open Learning (SOL), US Pandey, during whose tenure DU SOL launched the BA (Hons) Psychology course, said it was very popular among students.

“The course which is offered in distance mode is the same which is running in regular courses of the university. We are not able to understand why such a distinction is being made. If we look at the course, there isn’t so much of a health aspect to the course, where it needed to be brought under NCAHP,” said Pandey.

The course is now only being offered in open universities like Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU).

A student who is now in the second year of the course at DU SOL said, “For any changes that need to be brought every regulator provides a grace period. Now we don’t know what will happen to us.” She was hoping to join MA Psychology in regular mode at the university after graduating from SOL’s BA Psychology.

ODL psychology courses’ growth

As per the data from the DEB, the number of universities offering bachelor’s and master’s in psychology has been constantly increasing. 27 universities offered PG courses and 30 UG ones in the discipline.

BA, MA Psychology: Number of universities by year

Among the universities, 36 are state universities, 11 state open universities, five private universities, three deemed-to-be universities and two central universities. Among the two central universities, DU offered BA Psychology and Mizoram University offered Masters of Psychology. Telangana and Tamil Nadu had the highest counts for state universities offering the course in distance mode – 20 and eight, respectively.

Apart from standalone courses, several universities teach the discipline in combination with others. For instance, the state-run Osmania University in Telangana offers a Bachelor of Arts with a combination of 3 subjects – economics, modern language (English) and psychology.