IGNOU organises meet of international partners
By IANSThursday, September 16, 2010
NEW DELHI - The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has begun a three-day meeting of its international partner institutions to make its programmes more viable.
The fifth coordinators’ meet began Wednesday and is organised by IGNOU’s International Division (ID) IGNOU.
“The meeting will provide a forum for a wider exchange of ideas between all stakeholders to make IGNOU programmes more viable,” said ID director Kusum Sharma.
She also said that the meet will provide a platform for the programme partners to interact, brainstorm and share experiences, apart form identifying problems in the day-to-day functioning and to evolve strategies to plug the loopholes identified.
“According to the Association of Indian Universities (AIU), IGNOU has the maximum number of foreign students and our aim is globalisation and internalization of education,” said vice chancellor, V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai.
He also said the major challenge faced is how global educational targets can be addressed by the partner institutes of the university.
“There is also a urgent need to personalise solutions according to the need of the partner institutes across the world, which should be widely discussed,” Pillai added.
The International Division has 7,400 enrolled students. It has been extended to Britain and the ID plans to extend it further to Canada and France.
The meeting is being attended by large number of IGNOU partner institutions in Singapore, Ethiopia, Nepal, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Sharjah, among others.
