I welcome you to ‘Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU)’- the world’s largest University for Open and Distance learning. It is a central University established by an Act of Parliament in 1985 to serve the educational needs of diverse categories of people. It seeks to provide educational opportunities through innovative use of technologies. You may also call it the University of Opportunities.

IGNOU Regional Centre-Bhopal was established in September 1986, on Teacher’s Day, when the first Regional Director Dr. D D Koushik joined the Regional Centre. Presently, 31 Districts of Madhya Pradesh come under the jurisdiction of this Regional Centre, namely Agar Malwa, Alirajpur, Ashok Nagar, Badwani, Betul, Bhind, Bhopal, Burhanpur, Datia, Dewas, Dhar, Guna, Gwalior, Harda, Hoshangabad, Indore, Jhabua, Khandwa, Khargone, Mandsaur, Morena, Neemuch, Raisen, Rajgarh, Ratlam, Sehore, Shajapur, Sheopur, Shivpuri, Ujjain and Vidisha. The Regional Centre has collaborated with several educational institutions of the region to build up a vast network of student support services. It includes 25 Regular Learner Support Centres, 32 Learner Support Centre (P), 04 Special Learner Support Centres (S) and 05 Learner Support Centre (J).

During the past more than 3 decades IGNOU has been able to provide cost effective and high quality higher education to people belonging to diverse socioeconomic backgrounds , under-privileged communities living in rural and remote areas, jail inmates, women, SC/ST communities, minority communities etc. As a pioneer in Open and Distance learning (ODL), IGNOU has been on the forefront to serve the educational needs of all such categories of people who otherwise find it difficult to join regular classroom system of education. The ODL system is now a well-recognized system, for the design, development and delivery of educational programmes. We take pride in saying that Commonwealth of Learning has recognized us as a center of excellence in Distance Education and Ministry of Education has awarded the five-star rating to IGNOU for its innovative activities for educational delivery mechanisms.

The area under the jurisdiction of RC Bhopal is a challenging socioeconomic setting. We are aware of these challenges and strongly feel that innovations can be the key to overcome these challenges. In the time to come, innovations will be focus of our strategic interventions. We have plans to reach out to our target areas through effective engagement with local actors e.g. representative organizations of the community, development of customized solutions for educational delivery and customized programmes in regional languages.

Come and join the University of Opportunities.

With best wishes,

(Regional Director)