IGNOU students may soon have the option to migrate to regular universities. IGNOU (Indira Gandhi National Open University) is holding parlays with some varsities including Delhi University on a credit transfer scheme for doing so. It is also in talks with various open universities for such a tie-up.
However, talks are at a very preliminary stage and universities would have to do a lot work before an agreement is reached.
??In open and distance learning, a significant proportion of students are working and may have to move from one place to another. Thus, there should be a system where their mobility can be made easier. This scheme is a step in that direction,?? a senior IGNOU official told FE.
Initially, it could be adopted for a few courses and based on the experience it could extended to cover different programmes. For facilitating migration, institutions would need to establish credit transfer scheme cell within their institutions and transfer cases may be entertained once or twice in the year depending upon the admission process of a particular programme.
And for getting migration, student would have to get a transfer certificate from parent institutions in favour of receiving institution. But, it would depend upon the availability of seats.
IGNOU believes that along with facilitating learner mobility, it would also set the practice for seamless education in the country. Also, it would avoid duplication of work and unnecessary waste of time.
This would also benefit students interested in pursuing not available with his current institutions as he/she does not have to study successfully completed part of the programme. But, for the credit transfer scheme to succeed, universities need to have similar course content for programmes. If case of huge dissimilarities in course content, mobility would not be easy and students would suffer lack of knowledge.