Directorate of Distance Education (DDE), Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU) has in place a comprehensive document on academic counselling entitled: Mechanism for Providing Academic Counselling Support which is available at https://manuu.edu.in/dde/sites/default/files/DDE/Mechanism-Providing-Academic-Counselling-Support.pdf.

MANUU for all its distance education programmes takes extra care to provide effective academic counselling to all its students. It maintains that implementation of academic and teaching strategies in distance education need more attention and require extraordinary academic and teaching skills. Since imparting education to distance learners is no mean task, the first priority of MANUU always remained recruiting of qualified academic counsellors who possess spirit and enthusiasm to counsel and teach versatile group of distance students, which may be constituted of employees, house wives, drop outs, and such learners who might never have the chance for a formal education up to even secondary level. MANUU, therefore, treads very cautiously in appointing its counsellor, as they require extra qualification comparing to the counsellors that are appointed in other distance educational institutions. This extra qualification which is essential qualification in MANUU is ‘the knowledge of Urdu’. Additionally, the counsellors are required to possess Information Communication Technology (ICT knowledge).

MANUU has a well- established system in place for organising academic counselling sessions at any Learner Support Centre (LSC) of its DDE. MANUU first renews Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the LSC, and then approves the academic counsellors of the LSC taking into account their performance, after that dispatches the self learning material and uploads it on its website for online access, and thereafter informs LSCs and students about academic counselling.

Directorate of Distance Education MANUU complies with all the UGC-DEB regulations in respect of academic counselling. Only qualified academic counsellors are appointed to counsel the students at Learner Support Centres (LSCs) of all the Regional Centres (RCs) and Sub-Regional Centres (SRCs) of DDE, MANUU.

For B.Ed. programme, academic counselling is carried out in accordance with the NCTE norms and standards 2014.

There are at present 155 LSCs within the purview of RCs and SRCs of DDE MANUU, out of which 20 LSCs are meant for the B.Ed. programme.

DDE’s Academic Calendar presents the dates for the academic counselling for UG and PG programmes, along with the theory counselling classes for UG and PG students and practical classes for science programme. Academic calendar is displayed on the University website. The academic counselling and practical sessions are all held at LSCs as per the schedule; and the schedule of these sessions is communicated to the students through Short Message Service (SMS), emails in addition to the MANUU website notifications.

The number of face-to-face contact classes are held at LSCs as per prescribed credit points in accordance with the UGC-DEB regulations: for a course of 2 credit points, minimum of 6 counselling sessions/classes, for a course of 4 credit points, minimum of 12 counselling classes, for a course of 6 credit points, minimum of 18 counselling classes, and for a course of 8 credit points, minimum of 24 counselling classes are organised. 

A total of 2592 counselling sessions/contact classes are held for a total of 864 credits for Undergraduate and Post graduate programmes during 2018-2019, and 144 counselling sessions/contact classes are held for BEd programme for 100 credits.  

The contact classes are offered to the students on Sundays and holidays. The students are instructed to attend a minimum of 75% of the total number of contact classes to be eligible for appearing in the examinations. Model LSC at DDE at MANUU headquarters plays an important role in providing guidance and inputs to the other LSCs. The students pursuing science programme are also necessarily required to undertake their practical classes of their respective subjects at the LSCs with appropriate lab facilities. All the LSCs are required to furnish proofs of counselling sessions & practical classes, students’ and academic counsellors’ attendance with signatures which are maintained at MANUU DDE, Headquarters.

Each Learner Support Centre is required to submit the students’ attendance sheet which seek information pertaining to course, year, subject, name of the counsellor, time and date, name of the student, enrolment number, signature of the student, signature of the counsellor, and the signature of the coordinator of LSC.

The complete address pertaining to all the Regional Centres and Sub Regional Centres with their respective Learner Support Centres and their Co-ordinators is provided on Directorate of Distance Education weblink in MANUU’s website at https://manuu.edu.in/dde/learner-support-centres.

Further, MANUU has appointed co-ordinators for each subject. These coordinators’ list along with their mobile numbers and email addresses are displayed on the university website for clarification of any doubt pertaining to any subject. These subject coordinators are available to all from 9.00 am to 5.30 pm from Monday to Friday. The list can be found at https://manuu.edu.in/dde/sites/default/files/DDE/Subject-Coordinators.pdf .