Open Universities In India

objectives of open university.

the open university system has been initiated in order to augment opportunities for higher education and as an instrument of democratizing education. the Indra Gandhi National Open University was established in 1985 in fulfilment of these objectives. it had the following objectives in view:

1.to Delink degrees from jobs.

A beginning will be made in delinking degrees from jobs in selected areas. the proposal cannot be applied to occupation specific courses like engineering, medical, law, teaching etc.
similarly, the services of specialists with academic qualifications in the humanities, social, sciences, etc. will continue to be required in various job positions. De-linking will be applied in services for which a university degree need not be a necessary qualification. its implementation will lead to a refashioning of job specific courses and afford greater justice to those candidates who, despite being equipped for a given job, are unable to get it because of an unnecessary preference for graduate candidates.

2.National testing service.

Concomitant with de-linking, an appropriate machinery such as a national testing service, will be established, in appropriate phases, to conduct tests on a voluntary basis to determine the suitability of candidates for specified jobs and to pave the way for the emergence of norms of comparable competence across the nation.

open university

3.Technical and management education.

In view of the present rigid entry requirements to formal courses restricting the access of a large segment of people to technical and managerial education, programmes through a distance learning process, including use if the mass media, will be offered. technical and management education programmes, including education in polytechnics will also be on a flexible modular pattern based on credits, with provision for multi point entry. A strong guidance and counselling service will be provided.
Approprite formal and non-formal programmes of technical education will be devised for the benefit of women, the economically and socially weaker sections, and the physically handicapped.

4.Media and educational technology.

In order to avoid structural dualism, modern educational technology must reach out to the most distant areas and the most deprived sections of beneficiaries simultaneously with the areas of comparative affluence and ready availability.

5.Open education in universities.

The conventional attraction for degrees and diplomas and the desire of many a secondary certificate holder to acquire further qualifications while in employment ir working for employment led to the demand and provisions of 'external' degree courses.
correspondence courses followed as an improvement. the university grants commission formulated guidelines for correspondence courses in Indian universities. a few universities relaxed formal qualifications for entrants to correspondence courses. by 1989-90, correspondence courses in various disciplines had been instituted by 38 universities, at the under-graduate, post-graduate and diploma/certificate levels.

open university in india.

The first open university in the country was established in Andhra Pradesh in 1982, followed by the establishment of the Indra Gandhi national open university in 1985. more open universities got established thereafter, viz, Kota (1987), Nalanda (1987), and YC Maharasthtra open university Nashik (1989). nearly five lakh students are at present enrolled in open and correspondence system. this constitutes 12% of a total enrolment of about 42 lakhs in higher education. open universities account for about one fourth of the non-institutional enrolment in higher education, the remaining being in traditional correspondence courses.

Recommendations of NPE 1986.

Recognising the importance of distance education in India. the national policy on education (1986) emphasised the establishment of a national open university. it was poised that ''the open university system has been initiated in order to augment opportunities for higher education and as an instrument of democratising education.'' regarding the media use and communication technologies, the policy document observed: ''modern communication technologies have the potential to bypass several stages and sequences in the process of development encountered in earlier decades. both the constraints of time and distance at once become manageable. in order to avoid structural dualism, modern educational technology must reach out to the most distant areas and the most deprived sections of beneficiaries simultaneously with the areas of comparative affluence and ready availability.''

open university

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU)

Established in 1985, the prime objectives of Indira Gandhi national open university IGNOU is to provide wider access to higher education to a large number of population and, at the same time, also to maintain high quality in instruction. the university has adopted the policy of using new technological devices to support the printed materials because it was contented that modern media use would expand educational opportunities and help in maintaining quality of instruction. although there is a broad range of media available for educational purposes, the choice of IGNOU is limited to the technology available within the country.

Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University (YCMOU)

YCMOU, although formally established in 1989, had its antecedents in the open institution of the university of Poona under which a lot of preparatory work was done. The goal of the University is to become a ''mass varsity.'' as such, it emphasises vocational, technical and professional as well as general education programmes not only at the tertiary level but also at functional levels and outside the academic format, related to development and increased individual incomes.

This open university has planned courses in agriculture and horticulture. Ten representative crops have been selected, viz, grapes mangoes, cotton, groundnut, onion, 'toor' or 'archar' (pigeon-pea),
kardi (safflower oil-seed), ber, (jujube), pomegranate and sugarcane.
working farmars study production processess with the help of specially written print materials audio-visual aids, two way communications between individual farmars and agriculture experts, and contact sessions. for contact sessions, the university uses the concept of ''prayog parivaars'' i.e a sort of extented 'family' of 'experimenters' which enables producers/learners to get together to exchange ideas and benefit from each other's experience.

Open university in Andhra Prsdesh.

The government of Andhra Pradesh considered a proposal to start an open university in the state as early as 1978. however, the proposal was not given any practical shape. meanwhile, the Osmania university initiated proposals to start an open education college to strengthen its distance education system. the college, though a part of the university, was to have full autonomy and the university was only to award degrees. at about the time the college was to be established, the new chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, Bhavanam Venkatram, perceived the idea of establishing an open university and appointed in 1982 a committee to examine the proposal. this committee recommended the establishment of an open university in the state to provide access to higher education to the adult population of the state, for upgrading their functional capacities and improving the quality of their life in the context of broader social and political objectives of equalisation of educational opportunities and the emergence of a new concept of life long education. soon after, the wheels of administration moved very fast education. soon after, the wheels of administration moved very fast and the Andhra Pradesh open university was inaugurated in August 1982.

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Open Universities In India