No printed texts for University of Madras distance education students

The students of Individual of the Madras Institute of Distance Education (IDE) programme have claimed that, they didn't receive hard copies of their study material for over a year. In response, the Varsity officials replied they couldn't float tenders to select publishing firms as the vice-chancellor post remains vacant.

Students who enrolled in IDE courses last year are yet to receive hard copies of the books. However, this did not deter IDE from conducting the semester examinations. As the IDE was unable to publish books and give hard copies to students, it handed out soft copies and due to which many students didn’t attempt the exam.

A student in Masters in journalism at IDE stated “I am in the fourth semester now but I’m yet to receive my second semester books. There is a WhatsApp group in which we get regular updates about classes and examinations. In that group, we only received soft copies of study materials for the second and third semesters. It’s not at all feasible to take printouts of over 2,000 pages when I have paid a course fee of Rs 15,000,”

While, the varsity officials have stated the reason for the problem to the absence of a vice-chancellor. “The contract of the previous book publisher expired last year but we were not able to call tenders to select a new one as there is no vice-chancellor to give nod to necessary approvals. The convenor committee, constituted to manage affairs of the university, hardly meets so it was difficult to get clearance from them,”

The Institute spends over 50 Lakhs rupees per year to publish books.

The Director of IDE S Aravindhan has assured that things have been sorted out and by next week, the students will get the books. “As per the direction of the state government, we floated e-tenders to select the book publishers and the selection process is in its final stages. The syndicate body of the varsity will give the green signal following which we will immediately start the publishing work of the book.”