IGNOU - Indira Gandhi National Open University

IGNOU is a national university recognised all over India. The university is recognised by various government bodies and educational organisations, including the University Grants Commission (UGC). IGNOU lets students study from their home. They only require to appear for the term-end exam once in a year. The university offers over 200 courses at UG, PG, doctoral, Diploma and certificate levels. Students can pursue any degree from their home.

IGNOU study material is known to cover UPSC syllabus topics and is quite vast. The material is meticulously planned out to ensure that students cover all topics and understand the underlying concepts.

The online material is free of cost and candidates only need to pay a small amount for hardcopy. The fee of courses at IGNOU is quite affordable removing financial barrier.

Indira Gandhi National Open University or IGNOU is an open and distance learning platform. Currently, over 3 million students are pursuing course from the university. Since, it is a distance education platform, few things are different from a regular college. Here are a few highlighting points of studying at IGNOU:

Distance/ Online Learning: IGNOU offers courses in distance or online mode. Candidates get offline or online study material for their learning. Weekend classes are conducted for IGNOU courses.

Assignments: Once a student joins an IGNOU programme, he or she needs to start working on assignments. The assignments are specific to each programme and need to submitted online or offline at the study centre.

Study Centre: All the dealings related to the course are done in the study centre. Students are allotted a study centre for all academic queries.

Exams: The university conducts exams twice in a year for January and July session. Students as per their enrollment year, need to appear for the term end exam.

Since there is no physical interaction, communication can be a barrier in IGNOU. Students need to mail or connect with the regional centre for their queries.

Both IGNOU and DU SOL are reputable remote learning universities in India that have received government approval. Both also feature a specific career placement cell that links students with prospective employers. In contrast to DU SOL, IGNOU has more centres dispersed across the nation in terms of geographical accessibility. Furthermore, DU SOL offers courses mostly in the humanities and commerce, whereas IGNOU offers a greater selection of courses. Unofficial reports claim that IGNOU students often start out making INR 3.5 LPA. Further, the top recruiters of IGNOU in recent past included renowned organisations such as HCL, Wipro and Parle.