Give open varsities their due: IGNOU VC

Hyderabad: Open universities have been providing the much-needed fillip to education and they need to be recognised and given their due place, according to Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) Vice-Chancellor Prof Ravindra Kumar. He was speaking at the concluding session of the All India Vice-Chancellor’s Conference here on Friday.

“Every year, close to 40 lakh students get enrolled in distance universities and the number is only growing. Open universities learning has now come to be accepted as an alternative system but still it does not get its due,” he said and called upon law makers and stakeholders to give open learning its due.

For taking to digital technologies in a big way, institutions offering ODL (Open Distance Learning) should be called as Open Digital Learning (ODL) centres, IGNOU chief said.According to Prof Ravindra Kumar, open universities have gone completely digital as most of their services like registration, admissions, fee payments, exam results and others are done online, compared to universities offering conventional education.

Meanwhile, B R Ambedkar Open University Vice-Chancellor Prof K Seetharama Rao said there was no clarity in the issue of recognition of open varsity degrees either by the UGC (University Grants Commission) or the MHRD (Ministry of Human Resources Development). Also there was no proper regulation and also accreditation policy for these institutions, he said.