UGC and

One of the innovations in higher education carried out by the UGC in early eighties was using powerful medium of films for knowledge communication. As early as in 1984 UGC launched countrywide classroom (CWCR) and Production facilities at 6 universities. Initially the coordination with these centers was done from UGC office with the support of a consultant. Subsequently an inter-university Centre named as 'Consortium for Educational Communication' was set up in the year 1993 with the following objectives:

Close coordination, facilitation, overall guidance and direction to the activities of the Media Centres set up by the UGC in various universities.
Dissemination of educational programmes, through both the broadcast and non-broadcast modes.
Production of educational programmes (especially video and audio) and related support material and setting up of appropriate facilities for this.
Research related to optimizing the effectiveness of the programmes.
Providing a forum for the active involvement of academic and other scholars in the creation of appropriate educational programme.
Studying, promoting and experimenting with new techniques/technology that will increase the reach and/or effectiveness of educational communication.

As a response to these objectives the CEC coordinates the development of Centres, ensuring the quality of software, coordination of telecasting of the selected films, inspiring and encouraging innovations. During the two decades of CWCR and a decade of CEC considerable progress has been made.

Sh. Kapil Sibal, Sh. Sam Pitroda (recipient of Vikram Sarabhai Lifetime Achievement Award) & Dr. Tilak R. Kem (from right to left) during the Award Ceremony of 20th Video Festival

The system of educational communication has grown to 17 Educational Media Research Centres and Audio Visual Research Centre, now known as Educational Multimedia Research Centres (EMMRC). Average number of educational programmes produced has increased to 1000 programmes per year from 25 in the beginning. CEC runs a 24hr higher education channel known as Vyas Channel on Gyan Darshan Bouquet now also available on DTH. The focus of education films are the following three types:

On the side of development of production equipment CEC coordinates acquisition of latest equipment by the media centers and maintenance of these equipments.

The Countrywide Classroom has completed more than 2 decades and Consortium of Educational Communication has completed more than a decade of service.

Several measures are adopted for quality assurance, namely preview, feedback, technical quality check at the time of telecasting and post telecast feedback and viewers survey. It also encourages quality improvement through competition and awards. Some of the important awardees include programmes from EMMRC Calcutta, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Pune, Jodhpur, Indore, Imphal, Sagar, Calicut, Mysore, Srinagar, Roorkee and some outside producers, like NID, Ahmedabad; MIC Manipal; IMCPL, Faridabad; National Open School, New Delhi; C-DIT, Thiruananthpuram; PSBT, New Delhi, etc.

It also awards the person for his/her life time contribution. The awardees include Mr. Sam Pitroda, Prof. A. Balasubramanian, Fr. Gaston Roberge, Prof. Yash Pal, Prof. E.V. Chitnis, Prof. Vijaya Mullay Mr. Kiran S. Karnik, Mr. Shyam Benegal and Prof. J. Narlikar

Contact :

CONSORTIUM FOR EDUCATIONAL COMMUNICATION
(An Inter University Centre of University Grants Commission on Electronic Media)

I.U.A.C. Campus, Aruna Asaf Ali Marg,
New Delhi – 110 067.
Phone No. : 011-26897418,26897419