Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), New Delhi

The Indira Gandhi Open University was established by an act of the parliament in the year 1985. It has been approved by both the University Grants Commission (UGC) and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). IGNOU was established to solve the sole purpose of providing higher education opportunities to the disadvantaged sections of the society. Apart from teaching and research, it also acts as a national resource centre and serves to promote and maintain standards of distance education in India. It is one of the largest universities in India, providing distance education to nearly three million students in the country and abroad.

Notable Centres/Cells/Units in IGNOU:

IGNOU facilitates the following cells, centres and units with a specific function of each of them.

• Campus Placement Cell – The mission and endeavour of this cell are to provide gainful employment opportunities to its learners. The cell conducts on-campus and off-campus placement drives and employment enhancement activities at the headquarters and some of its regional centres.
• National Centre for Disability Studies (NCDS) – This centre was set up under the 10^th plan period and is operational since November 2006. The centre was set up with the mission to strengthen the potential of people with disabilities and build their capabilities so that they can connect with the mainstream of the society.
• Educational development of North East Region Unit – This centre was established with the objective of creating educational access and equal opportunities for the ‘unreached’ in the North- East Region cutting all physical and geographical barriers.
• Research Unit – This unit was set up in the year 2008. It is the nodal unit of IGNOU which manages all the research related activities at the University. The main aim of this unit is to conduct Research Council and Research Council’s Standing Committee meetings for developing policies and frameworks for the conduct of research activities. The Research Degree Program today has an enrolment figure exceeding 1268 scholars registered in 57 Research Disciplines. By the end of 2016, IGNOU has awarded PhD to 306 scholars and M.Phil. to 47 scholars.