Indira Gandhi National Open University

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) is the national open university of India. (There are also open universities in most states of India.)

Its web site is http://www.ignou.ac.in/

The Indira Gandhi National Open University was established by an Act of Parliament in 1985. Today it serves the educational aspirations of about 1.5 million students in India and 35 countries abroad through 11 Schools of Studies and an elaborate network of 58 regional centres, 7 sub-regional centres, 1400 study centres, and 41 overseas centres.

The University is making all efforts to take higher education to the doorsteps of the hitherto unreached. As of now, IGNOU caters to about 10% of all students enrolled in higher education in India.

Apart from teaching and research, extension and training form the mainstay of its academic activities.

It also acts as a national resource centre; and more importantly, functions as an apex body to promote and maintain standards of distance education.

The University has a presence in 35 countries. The Commonwealth of Learning has recognised it as one of its centres of excellence. It also has the unique privilege of hosting the Secretariats of SAARC Consortium of Open Distance Learning (SACODiL) approved by Heads of Govts. of SAARC Nations and Global Mega Universities Network (GMUNET) initially promoted by UNESCO.

Virtual Campus

The home page has a link to the Virtual Campus - http://www.ignou.ac.in/virtualcampus/index.htm.

Follow-up

It is seen as too large and too limited in its use of technology to be relevant to the majority of Eurpean universities; thus no special attention will be paid to it, given the limited effort we have for non-European initiatives.

---

> India
> Programmes