Shruthi Sasidhara Menon, born and raised in Bahrain, chose IGNOU over other universities for higher education. Shruthi completed her postgraduate diploma in human resource management with merit. She was awarded gold medal by the President Pranab Mukherjee at 26th convocation of IGNOU on its campus on Friday.
She said, “Very few universities in Bahrain have such wide variety of courses, which IGNOU offers. IGNOU’s study material is equivalent to that of foreign universities. I chose IGNOU because it was offering the course I was looking for. And its timings suit my schedule.”
Elamurugu Soupramanien, director of IGNOU’s partner institution in Bahrain, said, Shruthi works in an auditing company here so she does not have the time to attend the regular course. “IGNOU gives an opportunity to working people not only in India but also in foreign countries to carry on with their studies,” he said. “Shruthi only gets two to three hours after work, which she utilises to study. Her hardwork has paid off.”
Outside the limits of our own nation, IGNOU has a meaningful and significant presence in 43 countries with a network of 80 partner institutions having around 54,000 international students.
Pranab Mukherjee said, “In a span of 27 years, the varsity has become a pioneer for open and distance learning in the country. It meets the education demands of 30 lakh students in India and 43 other countries through a network of 67 regional centres, around 3,380 learner support centres and 80 overseas centres.”
Prof M Aslam, vice chancellor said the varsity has grown into the largest open university in the world. “The Pan Africa e-network project of IGNOU offers a range of programmes to around 30 African countries. Our audio-video programmes reach an estimated 10 million homes everyday now,” Aslam added.