Media Release: 30th Foundation day celebrated at IGNOU
23 November, 2015
30th FOUNDATION DAY CELEBRATED AT IGNOU
The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) celebrated its 30th Foundation Day on 19th November 2015 at the Convention Centre, IGNOU Campus, Maidan Garhi, New Delhi. The Foundation Day Lecture on Higher Education: Changing Scenario was delivered by Prof. Girish Chandra Tripathi, Vice Chancellor; Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi. Prof. Nageshwar Rao, Vice Chancellor, IGNOU, Prof. Sushma Yadav, Pro-Vice Chancellor presided over the function.
Prof. Tripathi congratulated Vice-Chancellor, the faculty, staff and students on this great occasion of 30th foundation day. Delivering the Foundation day lecture, He said “Higher education should focus on transformation. In other words, it should focus on ‘human flourishing”. Social justice, equality and social inclusion are inherently linked to our quest for well-being and ‘flourishing’. These are, as we know, dimensions of the public good. We seek higher education systems through which learners can be enabled to “develop their life projects, negotiate their life choices and configure their life purposes.”
He also examined some key issues, concerns and priorities in higher education in India like Skilling India, Spearheading the Soft Skills Revolution, Responding to Societal Imperatives: Access, Equity and Quality. Higher Education must promote new discoveries, new knowledge, innovation and enterprise. Through this synergy, economic growth, prosperity and well-being can be promoted. A rigid higher education system is an outmoded construct. New challenges demand flexibility.
We have prepared job seekers by providing them education, but people are unable to provide jobs. To get more jobs we need to re design our education system. This country needs inclusive education. We have to identify the place where jobs can be created and then the quality of teaching and research programmes should be improved. Prof. Tripathi said
He also added that “one should promote the Quality of research, as we are moving towards shaping knowledge workers and relationship workers for the future. In this context, increasing university-industry partnerships such as those we have mentioned would translate research into applications yielding substantial economic value. Leveraging the strengths and opportunities of the knowledge economy would be of immense significance.”
Prof Nageshwar Rao, Vice Chancellor, IGNOU “Congratulated the staff and students on the occasion of 30th foundation day of IGNOU, He also highlighted the key achievements of the University, He said “we have total enrolment of 25 lakh students and for July session, we received over 3 lakhs applications, which is 28% higher than previous year. We are also going to conduct a Job fair on 24th November 2015, which will be exclusively for women to promote women empowerment.”
"We have also signed an MoU to take a lead in initiating activities in collaboration with the NCPSL for the study and research in Sindhi language, literature and culture," said IGNOU’s Vice Chancellor.
Retired officials of the university were felicitated by the Chief Guest and Formal vote of thanks was given by Sudhir Budakoti, Registar (Admn).
A variety of activities were organized throughout the day and the programme was webcast live. IGNOU, the world’s largest university, was established by an Act of Parliament in 1985’. IGNOU offers its academic programmes through its 21 Schools of studies and a network of Sixty Seven regional centres, 2981 Learner Support Centres (LSCs). The university is currently having cumulative student strength of over 2.81 million learns. The enrolment of learners in 2014-15 was 7,42,426.
