Pranab Mukherjee to address 26th IGNOU Convocation

The President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee shall be the Chief Guest and deliver the 26th Convocation address of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) on April 12th, 2013 at the Convention Centre IGNOU headquarters at Maidan Garhi.Shri Jatin Prasada.

The Union Minister of State, HRD will be the guest of honour. The Convocation will be simultaneously held at 48 Regional Centres through teleconferencing mode.

This was announced today by Prof. M Aslam Vice Chancellor, IGNOU. At this convocation 1,58,387 students all over India will receive their Degree / Diploma & Certificates.

A total of 11 students will be awarded Doctoral degrees including a gold medal for an international student. 3 students will be awarded PhD outside HQs. This is for the first time that all Gold Medalists belonging to Regional Centres other than those in Delhi will receive their laurels in their respective regional centers only.

Prof. G. Ram Reddy Memorial Gold Medal for the highest marks in the Master's Degree Programme in the Social Sciences, Commonwealth Education Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA) Cash Award, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Cash Award, Mother Teresa Memorial Cash Award, Prof. Grover Cash Award for differently abled student, Best and Second Best Research Paper Award (sponsored by Indian Bank), Best Service Award to the Best Regional Centre, Best International Partner Institution for Best Service, Gold medal for Innovation in Open and Distance Learning.

IGNOU has a cumulative strength of around 3 million active students on its rolls.

It offers more than 400 programmes with 3500 courses at various levels- from certificates to doctoral degree, developed through 21 schools of Studies and some Centres, and delivered through 67 Regional Centres.

The University has considerably strengthened its presence beyond Indian shores in 43 countries, 82 overseas partner institutions including the Pan Africa Network, SAARC Tele-Education Network, UNESCO and the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation support centres.

For dissemination of knowledge and providing effective student support services, The University has 37 FM Gyan Vani Stations and two Gyan Darshan Educational Channels.

Open and Distance Learning (ODL) Mode has earned recognition for itself as the most viable, economical and flexible option to reach large numbers of people with quality education programmes.

For a majority of Indians, living in villages and small towns, just reaching a centre of higher education was, and still is, a major challenge. The ODL system has capacity to facilitate access to education and meet this challenge by consolidating our current initiatives and paying serious attention to quality.

IGNOU will be using emerging and innovative technologies to provide access and opportunities to differently-abled, tribals and women by adopting the best practices from successful models from India and abroad. Special efforts will be made to strengthen IGNOUs presence in the North-East and other low literacy regions.

We are planning to conduct special drives to enroll education seekers from marginalized groups (SC/STs, differently-abled and weaker sections of the society) in our programmes.

As an initiative for the disadvantaged, free education is and will continue to be provided to jail inmates through 59 Jail Study Centres across the country.

During the XII Five Year Plan period IGNOU plans to focus on five major areas which, among others, include increasing access, equity and quality of (ODL) by strengthening student support services; providing support for creating avenues for affordable education with provision for lateral entry into main stream education; developing human resource through vocational and need based programmes including skill development; and providing support for ICT enabled initiatives for extending reach to all disadvantaged sections of our society.

It will also considerably strengthen our presence beyond Indian shores in 43 countries of the world through 82 overseas partner institutions including the Pan-African Network, SAARC Tele-Education Network, UNESCO and the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation. IGNOU will attach great importance to promoting basic and applied research following inter-disciplinary approach by offering and strengthening research degree programmes in all Schools of Studies.