Mumbai University has launched a Distance and Online Education sub-centre at Sonopant Dandekar College in Palghar, the first of its kind in Maharashtra. The initiative aims to boost higher education access and dual-degree opportunities, especially for rural students and workers. It will offer affordable postgraduate courses like MBA and Cyber Security, supporting NEP goals and raising enrolment.

Palghar: In a move aimed at expanding access to higher education and promoting dual-degree opportunities, the University of Mumbai has launched a sub-centre for its Distance and Online Education Centre at Sonopant Dandekar College in Palghar. University officials described it as the first initiative of its kind in Maharashtra.

The agreement for establishing the sub-centre was signed between Prof. Dr. Shivaji Sargar, Director of the University’s Centre for Distance and Online Education, and Principal Kiran Save of the Sonopant Dandekar Educational Institute. The event was attended by university officials, faculty members, and representatives of the institute.

The initiative comes as part of the university’s larger effort to improve the state’s higher education participation rate, which currently stands at 28 percent. The university aims to increase this figure to 50 percent by 2035 through the expansion of distance and online learning facilities.

According to university officials, the new system will allow students pursuing regular degree programmes, as well as working professionals and citizens who have already completed their education, to simultaneously pursue a second degree. The move is expected to particularly benefit employees working in industrial areas such as Tarapur and other parts of the Palghar district.