The Commission has also clarified that certain courses cannot be offered in distance or online mode. Check the list of courses below.
The University Grants Commission (UGC) has issued a public notice for students planning to take admission in Open and Distance Learning (ODL) and Online programmes. The higher education regulator has urged students to carefully check the recognition status of universities and the list of approved courses before applying.
UGC in its notice has said that the session-wise details of higher education institutions (HEIs) allowed to run ODL and Online courses are available on the UGC-DEB portal (https://deb.ugc.ac.in). Students must ensure that both the university and the programme are approved for the academic session they are enrolling in.
The Commission has also clarified that certain courses cannot be offered in distance or online mode. Programmes in engineering, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, law, agriculture, hotel management, catering, culinary sciences, aviation, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, dental sciences, architecture, and visual arts and sports are not allowed.
The notice states that M.Phil and Ph.D. degrees in all subjects, as well as Yoga and Tourism & Hospitality Management at the undergraduate and postgraduate level, are not permitted in Online mode.
No franchise centres or private services
Another important guideline is that universities cannot offer ODL or Online courses through franchise centres or private service providers. Admissions must be carried out only through the headquarters of the institution, and support centres must be run directly by the university.
From the July 2025 session, students will also be required to generate a unique DEB-ID through the UGC-DEB portal using their Academic Bank of Credits (ABC) ID. This ID will be mandatory for admission in ODL and Online programmes and will remain valid throughout the student’s academic journey. The last date for admissions for the July-August 2025 session has been fixed as October 15, 2025.
The UGC has further announced action against two institutions. Suresh Gyan Vihar University in Rajasthan has been debarred from offering Online programmes for five academic sessions starting 2024-25, while Periyar University in Tamil Nadu has been barred for two sessions 2024-25 and 2025-26.
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