Info on Indira Gandhi National Open University

Anyone tried the programs?

http://www.ignou.ac.in/

It is established by Parliament in the Thirty-sixth Year of the Republic of India

Looks legit, but the web site needs a little revamping. Anyone experienced taking courses there?

 

PhD

I have been thinking of pursuing my futher education PhD/Tourism Studies there.
It is affordable for poor people like me.
Tuition is USD1,000/ years X 3 yrs = USD3,000.
http://www.ignou.ac.in/

 

Years ago this school had a hard to follow website and hundreds of thousands of students, one of the largest DL institutions in the world. Today, the website is still weirdly assembled and they seem to have added programs and students.

 

Years ago this school had a hard to follow website and hundreds of thousands of students, one of the largest DL institutions in the world. Today, the website is still weirdly assembled and they seem to have added programs and students.

 

It isn't too easy to follow still . Really hope that they can improve on their packaging as I had dealt with the Institutes of Technology and Business from India and they do have top class students.

 

I do agree with Dave that they had a rather difficult website to navigate. They have interesting new programs which was started recently, including IP Law, MBA-IT etc. They have also started offering on campus programs in New Delhi in Acturial Sciences and some other subjects.

I tried to contact the people who run the IP Law program, but after a couple of emails the communication got broken down. That is one of the main issue that i faced with IGNOU.

 

If you could work out the difficulties with email and the differences in overseas postal costs, I wonder if some of these programs might work out for Stateside students.

For example, IGNOU's 16 credit Certificate in Poultry Farming is 2,500 Rupees before overseas postal costs. About USD 53.00?! Is that a good deal? Seems like it. However, I know how to ring a chicken's neck and dress it out for dinner, but I don't know the differences in poultry farming between the States and India.

 

Again, this 16 Unit Certificate in HIV and Family Education from IGNOU's School of Social Work looks like an incredible continuing education deal at 1,000 Rupees:

http://www.ignou.ac.in/schools/sosw/PGuide-CAFED.pdf

 

Checked their overseas costs?

Hi

Last time I checked, in many areas IGNOU had one fee schedule (very low) for Indian students and those from other SAARC countries - and another for foreigners that sometimes approached 40 times (!) the Indian students' fees. IGNOU posted this fee schedule, but it wasn't AT ALL easy to find.

As you mentioned, the website is very difficult to navigate.

Johann

 

IGNOU exams

Hi again

Another potential hurdle is the lack of IGNOU exam sites for Westerners. They have many sites in South Asia and some in Africa - but none AFAIK in the US or Canada.

I read somewhere that it MIGHT be possible for North Americans to write the exams at the nearest Indian Embassy but I have seen no mention of that on IGNOU's part.

School has great reputation etc. - but right now, too many caveats for this emptor...

Johann

 

OK, well, then that changes everything... I've heard this rumor before, but never seen that fee schedule. In some program descriptions, such as project management, the fee states "for Indian Students", so the policy seems to vary from school to school. Of course, if you want to export degrees, it has to make economic sense with respect to postal rates and test centers to the student or there is South Africa, etc. to offer competition.

 

Yes, the fees for International Students are significantly higher:

http://www.ignou.ac.in/divisions/int_cell/index1.htm

 

Just a sideline information, one of the murderers of India's former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi actually achieved a Master's Degree in Computer Application from the Indira Gandhi National Open University, studying from her cell. Certainly not an easy feat!

http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/9/21/nation/20090921203741&sec=nation

 

If I've read this correctly it comes out to approximately 2K USD per year for someone in the USA. That may be a bit more than UNISA but it's still substantially less than most US/UK schools.

 

On the website I can see M.TECH Programmes in Embedded System Design and Information Security. I want to know, Is there any M.Tech program in VLSI?

 

I don't know what VLSI might be but I'm guessing that if it's not on the list of degrees offered then it's not an offered degree. BTW, I erased the advertising from your sig line.

 

There are still a few education bargains at IGNOU, even with the tariff for foreigners. The post graduate diploma in finance looks like a real value at $250 per course, if one can manage to take the entrance exam, wherever that might be held. Some of the programs / courses can be found at local community colleges and state universities for the same or lower fees. I wonder if these higher fees apply to Indian ex-pats living abroad; one could argue they can afford more. Or do the higher fees apply only non-residents and non-citizens? Not sure.

One thing is certain... I wouldn't take a web design course from IGNOU. Oh my... I would be hard pressed to name a website that bends / breaks more user interface design principles.