IGNOU to open study centres in six European countries

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, said Vice Chancellor, V.N. 
Rajasekharan Pillai. The varsity already has a centre in London. 
“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,†said Pillai.
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,†mentioned Pillai. 
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. 
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.