9 January 2011

MEDIA RELEASE

IGNOU bridges the gap between teachers, students: VC

“In 25 years, the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), completing its silver jubilee, has

bridged the gap between teachers and students with its quality study material. The university is

committed to quality teaching, education and capacity building through the Open Distance Learning

(ODL) pedagogy driven by the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). The self learning

study materials are of such excellence that you can prepare yourselves easily and feel as if your

teachers are seated beside you,” said Prof. V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai, Vice Chancellor, IGNOU, while

spreading across his New Year message to the university‟s students.

He furthered his message by saying that these efforts are supported by personal contacts with experts in

the subjects allocated to their study centres so that their academic problems are easily solved. The

university, quite often organizes interactive video conferencing sessions with the learners.

“Care for learners‟ education is best taken at IGNOU even as it is in the ODL mode,” he added. The

university takes many initiatives to be in regular contact with its students. One such trend setting

example is the „Student Satisfaction Survey‟. This survey tries to quantify student‟s basic

understanding of concepts related to chosen subjects and whether the learning materials and academic

counseling provided by IGNOU are able to clarify these concepts. The survey aims to assess student‟s

satisfaction levels specifically in such areas as quality of printing, learning materials like video/audio,

organization of academic sessions, performance of academic counselors, IGNOU staff in regional

centres and whether the learning materials are received by students on time.

Students can send their feedback by clicking on the link „Student Satisfaction Survey‟ on the home

page of the IGNOU website www.ignou.ac.in. The university functions through a large number of

Regional Centres and Study Centres within the country. For learner‟s abroad, IGNOU works through

its presence in 36 nations and 60 partner institutions. The university has signed over 50 collaborations

with world-class foreign universities in Asia, Europe, Africa, Australia, South America and also a few

in the USA.

Similar collaborations are being organized more and more to give IGNOU internationally vibrant

excellence. Today, among all Indian universities, IGNOU has the largest number of foreign students,

most of them are nationals of other countries.

Sheffali Malik

Media Consultant

9811064475