Making higher education possible for all

It is not possible for every student in India to stay in cities to continue their higher education. This is particularly the case with rural students, for whom the cost of higher education is forbidding. It is also of great help to housewives, who wish either to complete their education or to go in for special courses but cannot do so because of their household responsibilities;  professionals, who wish to study fields that will add to their expertise; and school and college dropouts, who want to get back to the normal educational path.  Distance education offers low-cost, quality education to such aspirants. This is normally done on an individual basis. The student and the teacher never come face to face in a classroom. They are separated by great distances as also time. The teacher provides the student with access to learning.

Growing response

The response to distance learning education in India has been remarkable. The student enrolment crossed the 10-million mark in 2012. It is expected that the enrolment in the distance and online education domain will keep on increasing at a fast clip over the next decade. The Distance Education Council (DEC), New Delhi was the regulating body for distance education in the country. In 2013, its work was taken over by the Distance Education Bureau (DEB), which was established by the University Grants Commission. The DEC has been promoting distance education earlier. The DEB will now take forward the mission. It has to promote distance education, approve institutes for offering such courses and ensure that certain standards are maintained and guidelines followed. Students wishing join a distance learning course must make sure that the course has been approved by the DEB. The list of the officially recognized institutes is available on the internet.

Well-known institutes

Among the notable institutes doing creditable work in the field of distance education are Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi; Karnataka State Open University, Sikkim Manipal University, Bangalore; Annamalai University, Annamalai (Tamil Nadu);, Jaipur National University, Jaipur, etc.

The courses offered

These institutes offer graduation courses in information technology, arts, sciences, computer application, and library science, and post-graduation courses in financial management, marketing, rural development, interior design, fashion design, textile design, hotel management and catering technology,  retail management,  bio-informatics, insurance and risk management, MBA, executive MBA, human resource management, law, health care, commerce, chain management, entrepreneurship development, economics, criminology, botany, biochemistry, anthropology, endocrinologyand applied geology. Some institutes also offer PhD courses. Most of these institutes select candidates through online tests. Some of them admit students on the basis of merit.

New experiments

Distance education courses requiring on-site presence of the student for some duration are called hybrid or blended courses. Many institutes are using the internet and websites to open online interactive courses. This is a recent development and still to settle down as a common method. When it does, it will be an effective tool in the dissemination of distance education.  Distance education is thus sure to educate those people who are unfortunately unable to take advantage of the normal educational system.