In a bid to ease the admission process, the Indira Gandhi National Open University (Ignou) said on Sunday it was selling student handbooks and prospectus at the Ignou city centre on Jai Singh Road in the heart of the city.

Established in 2008, the city centre provides student support services and works as a promotional unit of the university.

Students can continue to approach the regional centres or the Ignou headquarters for the handbook and prospectus.

The last date to apply for all the programmes is July 30.

IGNOU is making efforts to have a common curriculum for all the Open Universities (OU) in the country. The move has been made to meet the national agenda set by MHRD to have quality education, while pushing the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education.

The university's Inter University Consortium (IUC) had recently organised a meeting of VCs of all the OUs on campus to discuss the strategy for formulating a common curriculum for open and distance learning. In order to meet the MHRD agenda, the authorities decided on having a three-pronged strategy. This will include formulating a common curriculum for UG courses, creating open education resource available to all via a web portal and generating curriculum-based multimedia e-content.

According to Vibha Puri Das, secretary, department of higher education, MHRD, all OUs must collaborate in order to enhance the GER across the country. Also, emphasis should be on faculty development, teacher training and research in universities. The objectives of IUC for the programme include experimenting with technology at the universities and making a judicious use of both media and technology for distance education learning.

For implementation of the programme, Madhu Prahar, director, IUC, IGNOU, says, "There will be a common syllabus. To begin with, as a pilot project, a common curriculum can be developed for the three UG programmes. Also, teacher-training will focus on the use of new technology."

The programme is one of the key pillars of the 12th Five-Year Plan, which includes building a national vocational education framework as well as producing employable manpower.

Source: TOI

Besides government and private universities, the admissions are in full swing at open universities, leaving ample options for the students.

In matters of course fee, open universities have an edge over other varsities. Moreover, these universities also run their own placements cells too to help students secure jobs after course completion.

One of the oldest and renowned open universities is Indra Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU). It offers various professional degree, diploma as well as certificate courses via three different modes - online education, distance learning mode and on-campus studies.

A significant feature of IGNOU is that it offers more than 600 degree, diploma and certificate programmes, and that too at a very nominal tuition fee, said a counsellor of IGNOU study centre at PPN Degree College on Monday. He added that one can get the prospectus for Rs 100 from any of the study centres located at HBTI, PPN College and Christ Church College before July 29 for seeking admission in the university in July session.

Besides IGNOU, the students have other options among open universities.

Uttar Pradesh Rajarshi Tondon Open University (UPRTOU) also offers a wide range of professional and regular degree programmes at UG and PG levels. It also offers PhD and MPhil programmes, said Sarvesh Pandey, centre head of one of the centers of UPRTOU.

One can apply for registration till July end for any course of his/her choice through various study centers of UPRTOU including VSSD College in Nawabganj, Juhari Devi Girls' College etc.

The CSJMU also runs various programmes for humanities and commerce streams in provisional (private) study pattern. One can apply to these courses by purchasing prospectus from CSJMU campus from August onwards.

Sikkim Manipal University (SMU), which has four study centres in the city, is another option for the admission seekers.

This university offers admissions at every quarter of the year.

Director of one of the study centres of SMU, said that SMU is affiliated to UGC and offers degree and diploma programmes in information-technology (IT) and management streams. It also offers various courses related to humanities stream as well.

Source: TOI

Read About UPRTOU, Juhari Devi Girl's college, CSJMU, IGNOU