SPPU to launch online platform to provide free certificate courses

The SPPU is launching its own platform wherein 500 certificate courses will be made available to the students.

The Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) will be launching its own online platform this month for several courses. The platform has been named 'Degree Plus'. With job-related skills and added certification becoming increasingly relevant for all students to increase their employability, the SPPU is launching its own platform wherein 500 certificate courses will be made available to the students.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, the popularity of online courses has grown exponentially and several ed-tech companies, in collaboration with Indian and foreign universities, have started offering diploma and certificate courses online.

SPPU Vice-Chancellor Dr. Nitin Karmalkar said the journey started during the lockdown period when he was speaking to a few ed-tech companies about making a few diploma courses of the university available online.
“During the lockdown, we realised that acceptance of online courses was finally picking up. Today, a pure graduation in one subject isn’t enough, students need to pick up several skills and certificates to increase employability and besides that, why not study subjects that they are interested in? That’s why I thought of speaking to online course platforms but I realised that the fees which these platforms charge can be exorbitant… being a state-funded public university, we have to be inclusive and sensitive to all sections of society, especially students from economically weaker sections. We couldn’t expect them to pay such high fees,” he said as reported by Indian Express.

In the meantime, the university developed several short courses as a part of either industry partnerships, like diplomas in mountaineering, or tie-ups with government bodies like AYUSH.

“We got in touch with one of the platforms during the online examination system when we were using their cloud servers. After that, we had a meeting and decided to start our own platform, Degree Plus, where the university would offer certificate courses online. Since we had already developed many short courses at the university level, we decided to offer them there. We have also spoken to platforms like Coursera, SimpliLearn… and hopefully, the platform will offer their courses too, albeit at a discounted price for university students. In fact, barring a few courses which will be technology-oriented, most courses will be available mostly free for the first six months, apart from the payment of a small registration fee,” said Karmalkar.

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