Quote:IGNOU to open study centres in six European countries

2010-09-22 16:30:00  
New Delhi, Sep 22 (IANS) The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), the largest in the world, will open study centres in six European nations, including Germany and France, to offer personalised courses, its Vice Chancellor V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai has said.

'We will open our centre in Paris next month. Negotiation is going on with Germany. I hope we will start in Germany by the end of this year. Our target is to open five-six centres in Europe by July 2011,' Pillai told IANS.


The Netherlands and Austria are other European countries where IGNOU, the world's largest by student enrollment, is considering to open study centres. It already has a centre in London, the vice chancellor added.


Pillai, who also heads the government's Distance Education Council, said IGNOU would also offer personalised courses in Gandhian studies and some Indian languages such as Sanskrit through its new study centres in Europe, besides the regular courses.


'We are in discussion with several institutes in the US, Australia and Europe to develop personalised courses. It will be done keeping in mind the needs of partner institutes,' he said, adding IGNOU's low course fee was hindrance in forging accords overseas.


'Our fee is quite low when you compare it with what is charged by universities in the developed countries. We are planning to restructure the fees for courses offered outside India,' Pillai said.


IGNOU has presence in 35 countries through 56 study centres. Over 42,000 students are enrolled at its overseas centres. More than 90 percent of them are the people of India origin.


The vice chancellor said student enrolments at the university have almost trebled in the last four years.


'Now we have 3.2 million active enrollments. It was 1.1 million in 2006. This indicates increasing popularity of distance education,' said Pillai, adding the university targets to sustain over 25 percent annual growth in enrollments in the coming years.


IGNOU courses were also becoming increasingly popular in Africa and the Gulf region that has a large strength of India expatriates. 'Many African universities have approached us for collaboration. We will help in designing course and study materials.'


He said IGNOU will also introduce e-books within six months to increase the popularity of its courses among high-tech students. 'We will start with management and IT and gradually introduce it for all the courses. It is cost effective and user friendly.'


The university also plans to introduce video-conferencing facilities for all its 56 overseas study centres within a few months.

Quote:'Our fee is quite low when you compare it with what is charged by universities in the developed countries. We are planning to restructure the fees for courses offered outside India,' Pillai said.

Quote:I checked this school out. They seem to be legit and offer a lot of programs. Anyone see any problems?

ham Wrote:110% unresponsive...if UNISA was bad, this is non-existent.

Quote:John D
Jun 28 2005, 4:23 am


Azad,

You despicable, lying and cheating Indian scum, you filthy crook, this just came to my attention and I'll give you just one warning.  Remove all your posts about Athenaeum (and not "Athenaem" you illiterate bastard), including the title of this thread, or I'll see to it that a thick, sharp at one end, long piece of Indian bamboo is shoved right up your Indian ass.  The technical term for this is "impaling", but, of course, you wouldn't know.

Impaling is exactly what you deserve you slime and that's what's you're going to get if you dare ever again mention my name or my school. This is a promise and if you ask around you'll find out that I always keep my promises no matter what and regardless of the cost.

Don't bother to complain that this is a threat, because it is a threat.

John S. Dovelos

(12-09-2010, 12:18 AM)msganti Wrote: Not responding to e-mails or inquiries is typical of many Indian Universities. In India, this is how it works - you register, pay the fee, take exams and get your degree. Beyond that, one can not expect any communication from the University.

msganti Wrote:Not responding to e-mails or inquiries is typical of many Indian Universities....Indian Universities are mostly mostly government-owned, and are not for-profits.