New Delhi, March 17: The UGC has issued a directive to all universities to stop offering diploma, bachelor's and master's courses in engineering in distance mode.

UGC secretary J.S. Sandhu issued a public notice on March 11, saying the institutions cannot offer these courses in distance mode till the UGC (Open and Distance Learning) Regulations are finalised.

In July 2009, the distance education council (DEC) - it was made part of the UGC two years ago - had issued a directive to universities to stop offering BE and BTech courses in distance mode.

Universities like the Indira Gandhi National Open University and the Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University had then stopped offering the courses.

The HRD ministry had asked the DEC to frame guidelines to enable universities to validate the engineering degrees already awarded in distance mode. But the guidelines have yet to be framed.

In 2009, the HRD ministry headed by Kapil Sibal had received complaints that the engineering distance degree courses offered by certain universities were substandard.

A Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University faculty said: "UGC's mandate does not say it will prescribe if any university should offer a particular course or not. Every university is competent to design their courses and offer."