IGNOU has added more programmes under the scheme of On-Demand Examination scheme. The scheme of On-Demand Examination has been extended to all courses of Bachelor Preparatory Programme (BPP), all elective courses of Bachelor in Tourism Studies (BTS), three foundation courses (FST, FEG-1, FEG-2) of Bachelors Degree Programme (BDP) and eight Application Oriented Courses (AMK-1, AOM-01, AED-01, ASP-001, CTE-03, CTE-04, CTE-05 and AEC-01) of BDP.

The facility of On-Demand Examination is also available in all courses of Certificate in Guidance (CIG), Certificate in Teaching of English (CTE), Certificate in Organic Farming (COF), Certificate in AIDS and Family Education (CAFÉ), Diploma in AIDS and Family Education (DAFE), Certificate in Tourism Studies (CTS), Diploma in Tourism Studies (DTS). Many more programmes are to be added under this scheme very soon.

IGNOU started a flexible and learner friendly scheme of examination, called “On – Demand Examination” nearly a year ago. In addition to the six monthly term end examination in all its courses, presently, IGNOU is providing the facility of On Demand Examination to its students in 54 courses covering 10 programmes.

IGNOU’s Vice-Chancellor VN Rajasekharan Pillai has praised UK Open University. Citing its example Pillai has said that IGNOU too would give emphasis on quality research. “Many Open Universities in the world, like the UK Open University, the Open University of Netherlands and Hong Kong Open University support extensive doctoral and post-doctoral research. They have excellent research portfolios and vibrant research communities which are enhanced through collaborations with top-ranking research institutions worldwide”, said Pillai in a release issued by IGNOU. However, he has not given any roadmap for Indian model for research through distance education.

However, he has said that strict enforcement of quality criteria, following international benchmarks in research, is the only way to curb these undesirable practices. He further added that, ”We cannot take a stand that the Open University and Distance Education system will not be able to provide the facilities and ambience for High quality research. State-of –the –art research laboraties, even in sophisticated science and technology areas, are available in the Open University system”.

IGNOU has told its management students to complete their programme within eight years. Failing to complete the course management students will have to get admission in the respective courses afresh.
According to Ravi Mohan, Chief PRO, IGNOU, it is difficult to maintain records of huge number of students for the university as over 3.8 lakh students have been studying different management courses for over ten or eight years.
“There was no upper limit to complete management courses till now. This limit has been implemented recently. All students exceeding the limit must complete their course by this year”, Ravi Mohan told fachcha.com.
There are old 3.81 lakh students of Management programmes of IGNOU and MBA(B&F) have been informed to successfully complete all the requirements for the award of Degrees/ Diploma by December 2010 term-end examination. If they fail, they will have to seek fresh admission to complete the left-over courses, he adds.
IGNOU conducts several management courses at undergraduate and post graduate level. Other courses have upper limit to complete the course.

Some of the students of IGNOU will get concession for rail travel. According to Rajasekahran Pillai, V-C, IGNOU has said that the students enrolled in face-to-face programme would now avail concession for rail travel. IGNOU is currently running 21 face-to-face programme. The facility will not be available for lakhs of students who have been enrolled in various courses in distance mode or correspondence courses.
It is notable that IGNOU is currently running hundreds of courses in distance mode.

Third International Conference on Digital Libraries (ICDL 2010) inaugurated by Indian HRD Minister Kapil Sibal today in New Delhi. The conference is co-hosted by IGNOU and TERI. Delegates from various countries including USA are participating in the conference.
ICDL 2010 is being organized from 23rd to 26th February, 2010.The theme of the conference is ‘Digital Libraries: Shaping the Information Paradigm’ and the focus is on the strengths and potential of digital libraries and their role in education, cultural, social and economic development.
The International Conference will facilitate the availability of the rich repositories and connective links to the identified topics from the world’s libraries for students, researchers, scholars, teachers, trainers, writers, artists and other members of the Knowledge society. All libraries of the world will be networked for all domains of knowledge for sharing , research and development so that students will not have to visit libraries, but would be able to access any topic online.
Apart from the other aspects, this conference has special focus on web-based methodologies. IGNOU’s participation in the event would help it strengthen its arena of ICT, Web-based methodologies and digitization for promoting seamless access to all