The Institute of Distance and Open Learning (IDOL), University of Mumbai, has announced admissions for its first-year programmes. The admission process, which began on October 27, will extend up to the third week of November. Applicants can find details on https://old.mu.ac.in/distance-open-learning/admission/. For new registrations, students can go to http://idoloa.digitaluniversity.ac/ before filling the forms.
Enrolment at IDOL has fallen this year owing to the pandemic. “Like other regular colleges, we, too, have faced a decline in the number of applicants,” confirmed Vinod Malale, public relations officer of University Of Mumbai. He said families have become financially unstable in the last 18 months. “Even though distance learning is a less expensive form of education, many students have found it impossible to enrol because of their financial situation,” he said, adding that in 2018-19 IDOL had 67,000 students, which went down to 64,000 in 2020-21. He said the number of students, prior to the pandemic, used to increase by 3,000.
The official IDOL website displays a list of programmes and registration schedule. Malale said the University Grants Commission (UGC) has given three additional programmes to IDOL this year – BSc Computer Science, MA Geography, and MMS MBA. He said this is the first time University of Mumbai has received recognition for its MBA course.
“Hence, UGC permitted us 17 programmes altogether. Students can find their study materials in various stores in Kalyan, Thane and Churchgate, and access the YouTube channel of IDOL for educational videos, he said, adding that students can also participate in online video lecturing and guidance that takes place on moodle, google meets as well as Zoom.
