The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), established by an Act of Parliament in 1985, has continuously striven to build an inclusive knowledge society through inclusive education. It has tried to increase the Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) by offering high-quality teaching through the Open and Distance Learning (ODL) mode.

The University began by offering two academic programmes in 1987, i.e., Diploma in Management and Diploma in Distance Education, with a strength of 4,528 students.

Today, it serves the educational aspirations of over 3 million students in India and other countries through 21 Schools of Studies and a network of 67 regional centres, around 2,667 learner support centres and 29 overseas partner institutions. The University offers about 228 certificate, diploma, degree and doctoral programmes, with a strength of nearly 810 faculty members and 574 academic staff at the headquarters and regional centres and about 33,212 academic counsellors from conventional institutions of higher learning, professional organisations, and industry among others.

The mandate of the University is to:

• Provide access to higher education to all segments of the society;
• Offer high-quality, innovative and need-based programmes at different levels, to all those who require them;
• Reach out to the disadvantaged by offering programmes in all parts of the country at affordable costs; and
• Promote, coordinate and regulate the standards of education offered through open and distance learning in the country.
• To achieve the twin objectives of widening access for all sections of society and providing continual professional development and training to all sectors of the economy, the University uses a variety of media and latest technology in imparting education. This is reflected in the formulated vision of IGNOU, keeping its objectives in focus, which reads:

The Indira Gandhi National Open University, the National Resource Centre for Open and Distance Learning, with international recognition and presence, shall provide seamless access to sustainable and learner-centric quality education, skill upgradation and training to all by using innovative technologies and methodologies and ensuring convergence of existing systems for large-scale human resource development, required for promoting integrated national development and global understanding.

Courses offered:

IGNOU offers numerous courses from Bachelor, Diploma, certificate, Postgraduate and Ph.D. level courses under 21 different schools. Few schools are mentioned below.

School of Agriculture

School of Performing and Visual Arts

School of Law

School of Social Sciences

School of Foreign Languages

School of Humanities

School of Journalism and New Media Studies  

School of Management Studies

School of Gender and Development studies

School of Computer and Information Sciences

School of Engineering and Technology

Eligibility:

Eligibility varies for the program one applies to. For all PG programs, candidates must have completed their UG. For more details on eligibility for a particualr course check the website.

Fee Structure:

The fee structure varies for different courses. You can find the fee for various courses here.

Deadline for Application:

Most of the courses operate in two batches over the year. One batch of applications start in December and the other batch of applications start in May-June.

Application Process:

The candidates can fill their applications online or can download the application, fill it and submit it in the nearest regional office of IGNOU. Here is the link to the website to apply.