INDIRA GANDHI NATIONAL OPEN UNIVERSITY - A BOON OR BANE

At the postgraduate level, IGNOU provides MA, M.Sc, and M.Com programs. All the courses are of 2-years duration. Applicants must hold a bachelor's degree to be considered for the courses. Admission is based on academic achievement at the undergraduate level. The admission process at IGNOU is online and smooth. I personally did not experience any difficulties in filling up the application form. I am a student of the SC Category and IGNOU provides 100% relaxation of a fee to the reserved categories since January 2021 admissions due to COVID. I applied for Vivekananda College and since 2020, I didn't go to college once due to coronavirus disease. Each and everything is online nowadays. The minimum marks required in graduation for admission to MA English were 50%. They conduct orientation every year after the confirmation of admissions and the classes are held on the weekends only. I solely recommend IGNOU if one is planning to attain a particular degree along with their job.

The course curriculum is very limited in IGNOU as I have seen in other universities. Also, the faculty is a bit advanced which makes it difficult for the average students to have a better understanding of the topic. These are the only cons I experienced here until now. I chose the course because I want to become a professor and I am also pursuing B.Ed with the same discipline which will help me in my further qualifications. Here, the faculty-student ratio approximately is 1:60 respectively during online classes. The faculty in IGNOU is highly qualified and experienced and their teaching method is advanced and crisp at the same time. I enrolled for this course in the session July 2020, but till now I haven't been given any term-end exams for the first year as they have been postponed to the month of December. Although, I have submitted my assignments of the first year and the experience was pretty good as the questions were related to the entire course.

Students became eligible from their final year/semester for the campus placements. The placements offered at IGNOU are decent as top companies like Reliance Life Insurance, HCL Technologies, Amazon, Tech Mahindra, Infosys, Delloite, Youtube, etc. The average package offered was 3-5 LPA. Sectors like Business Development come on top with 13% of students which followed by Operations with 12% of students.

In IGNOU, the fee structure is a thing that everyone should go for it because you'll not be able to know when the course has been completed. The fee structure of IGNOU is very affordable and even the students of reserved categories have the opportunity to enrol in a one-time free course be it any certificate course, diploma, graduate diploma, or even a degree. Isn't it great? There is hardly any fee hike in IGNOU and the examination fee is also minimal of Rs.200 per paper. The learners belonging to reserved categories are eligible for Government of India scholarships. Students are guided to collect the scholarship forms from the office of the Social Welfare Officer of their state, fill it and submit the completed form to their respective regional centers. Visit( www.ignou.ac.in/ignou/aboutignou/division/srd/scholar_fee_reimbursement )for more scholarship details. IGNOU has its own placement cell called CPC (Campus Placement Cell). The cell provides on-campus and off-campus placement

As I mentioned, my admission has been done in the session July 2020 when the pandemic was on its urge. That is why everything has been online and to be honest, I have not experienced the campus life at IGNOU. And same goes with the Social Life, Clubs, and Infrastructure. Though I visited IGNOU once to collect my books, the infrastructure is pretty good over there.