“IGNOU has democratized higher education by aggregating resources from across the country. The syllabi specific course material has helped standardization and quality across programs. The effort in aggregating different sources from across the country has been humongous but rewarding for the education in the country,” he said.

 

He also brought forth various new initiatives that he has undertaken under his tenure. “8^thDecember 2017 shall see the launch of two programmes on solar awareness and solar application in water pump. These programmes shall be in French and Spanish language and are primarily meant for the African countries,” he informed.

 

The university has also signed a MoU with S-VYASA University in Bangalore, offering yoga programmes at all levels from certificate to PhD level. “This should take shape by January 2018,” he confirmed. The work for laying down the optical fiber network with Reliance JIO in the entire campus is also going on. “This network shall be used in the future by the university to upload various study materials in audio/video format,” he said.

 

Prof. Kumar also stressed upon re-defining ‘Open and Distance Learning’ for the university to ‘Open and Digital Learning’. He feels that IGNOU has been predominantly active in the urban sector and should now work equivalently for the rural too. “With the help of the two MoUs that we have signed with the MoEIT for the common service centres (CSCs), the rural penetration should increase,” he felt. He strongly believes that, “No rural student in the village should travel beyond 5 kms for education. CSCs shall help them to the core to bring IGNOU near to such population.”