18-10-2017, 09:43 AM
The National Open University of Indira Gandhi known as IGNOU. It is a national university of distance education located in Maidan Garhi, New Delhi, India. Named after former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, the university was established in 1985 with a budget of $ 20 million, after the Indian Parliament passed the Indira Gandhi National Open University Act of 1985 (IGNOU Act 1985). IGNOU is administered by the central government of India, and with more than 4 million students, claims to be the largest university in the world.
IGNOU was founded to serve the indigenous population through distance and open education, providing opportunities for higher education particularly to disadvantaged segments of society. It also aims to encourage, coordinate and establish standards for distance and open education in India, and to strengthen India's human resources through education. In addition to teaching and research, extension and training form the mainstay of their academic activities. It also acts as a national resource center and serves to promote and maintain distance education standards in India. IGNOU hosts the Secretariats of the SAARC Consortium on Open and Distance Learning (SACODiL) and the World Network of Mega Universities (GMUNET), initially supported by UNESCO.
IGNOU has initiated a process of decentralization through the creation of five zones; north, south, east, west and northeast. The first of the regional headquarters, which serves four southern states, Pondicherry, Andaman and Nicobar and Lakshadweep, is being established on the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala. [Citation needed]. The Ministry of Human Resources has entrusted the responsibility for developing a Policy on Open Courses and distance learning and online to IGNOU.
