Demand for distance education spikes in UP, reveal UPRTOU records

After the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the demand for distance education has surged, as evidenced by the enrolment records of Uttar Pradesh’s sole state open university—Uttar Pradesh Rajarshi Tandon Open University (UPRTOU) in Prayagraj.

The data reveals that admissions for the academic year 2023-24 reached an all-time high, marking the most significant enrolment since the university’s establishment in 1999. In this academic year, which included admissions from July 2023 and January 2024, there were 41,885 new admissions across 126 different courses, bringing the total number of registered students at the university to 81,306—an increase of 11,767 compared to the previous academic session, according to university officials.

Since the first wave of Covid-19 in 2020, educational institutions had transitioned to online classes. Over the past four years, the number of students enrolled in various UPRTOU courses has risen by more than 29,000, according to university officials.

In the year 2020-21, comprising admissions done in July 2020 and January 2021, a total of 26,906 new students had taken admission. At the time there were 18,670 students in the second year and another 6,259 in the third year of their respective courses bringing the count of total registered students to 51,835.

After this, the number of total registered students increased to 57,445 in 2021-22 with 32,006 new admissions and 18,900 students in the second year and 6,539 in the third year of their respective courses.

In the year 2022-23, the number of new students taking admissions further increased to 39,704 taking the count of total enrolled students at the varsity to 69,539 with 24,230 students in second year and 5,605 students in the third year of their respective courses before reaching around 81,306 in the current 2023-24 session comprising admissions in July 2023 and January 2024 with 41,885 new admissions and 31,561 students pursing second year and 7,860 in third year of their respective programmes, informed UPRTOU admission in-charge Prof JP Yadav.

UPRTOU vice-chancellor Prof Seema Singh said that the university aims to increase the annual number of new student admissions to 100,000. Efforts are being made to raise awareness among potential students about the admission process and the wide range of courses offered by UPRTOU, she added.

Earlier, in compliance with directives from the University Grants Commission (UGC), the university had discontinued over three dozen PG Diploma courses. University officials claimed that if these courses were still offered, the total number of student admissions would have exceeded 100,000 this year alone.