27th convocation of IGNOU held at Regional Centre Gangtok

GANGTOK, 16 Apr: Indira Gandhi National Open University [IGNOU], Regional Centre Gangtok will have its own campus in the near future as the Regional Centre has already identified some suitable land sites for construction of a permanent campus in and around Gangtok. The process of acquiring and purchase of the land is under process with the Government of Sikkim.

This was informed by Regional Director, IGNOU Gangtok, Yogesh Bhutia while addressing the 27^th convocation of IGNOU today at Tadong Degree College Auditorium.

During the 27^th Convocation of IGNOU, Regional Centre Gangtok today certificates were awarded to 1046 students [24 different programmes amongst 321 Masters Degree, 417 Bachelors Degree, 272 B.Ed and 36 Post Graduate Diploma]. The main function of the 27^th Convocation was held at New Delhi.

Addressing the gathering, the Regional Director said that in 2013 two new Learner Support Centres and Special Study Centres were established at Government College Gyalshing and at Damber Singh College at 5^th Mile Tadong. The Regional Centre is working on setting up Learner Support Centres at all the sub-divisions in the state to provide access to higher education, especially to the disadvantaged population, he said.

Mr Bhutia informed that student enrollment has been increasing over the years and in the academic session 2013-14, the enrollment of students crossed 6,500. Majority of the students are enrolled in the Bachelors Degree programme of which 49 percent are in Bachelor of Arts alone. 28 percent of students have enrolled in the Masters Degree Programme, 9 percent in in-service B.Ed programme, while 6 percent of in-service teachers have enrolled for the Diploma in Elementary Education Programme.

Female enrollments are higher than male at 56%, while 58% of the enrollments are of students from rural background, he informed.

IGNOU offers 228 Academic, Professional, Vocational, Awareness and Skill oriented programmes of study. Out of these 228 programmes on offer, Regional Centre Gangtok offers 53 programmes which range from Diploma courses, competence certificate courses to Masters Degree programmes.