The city-based Karnataka State Open University (KSOU) has bagged the best ranking for quality, according to an assessment by Centre for Internal Quality Assurance (CIQA), the nodal body to co-ordinate the inter-functionality among all the departments of DDE (Directorate of Distance Education). The KSOU has got the ranking for its performance in 2018-19 when Prof. D. Shivalingaiah was the Vice-Chancellor. KSOU got 299.85 marks out of 400 (74.96 percent) in the ranking assessment. Universities which score more than 70 percent are accorded rankings.

The KSOU got 79.4 out of 80 marks for workload management, 36 out of 40 for style of functioning, 38 out of 80 for exams, 20 out of 20 for admissions and fee collection, 19.5 out of 20 for teaching quality, 9 out of 10 for internal quality and 26 out of 40 for websiteinformation and updates, according to CIQA Director Dr. S. NiranjanrajeUrs.