IGNOU to focus on student support

New Delhi, Aug 15 (IANS) The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) vice chancellor Wednesday said strengthening the student support services at the regional centres is the university's priority.

"We would like to strengthen the student support services in two ways -- one would be related to the operational side which would cater to helping students with filling in the forms," Gopinath Pradhan said in his Independence Day message.

"The other would be to focus on improved counselling for students. We give them reading material but we also hire experts from different colleges and universities who teach students a particular subject at a fixed time of the week."

"We have a number of programmes which range from Bachelor's to Ph.D.'s and we would like to have more experts who can tackle students' doubts," he said.

Pradhan also emphasised on self-assessment.

"We celebrate the 66th Independence Day today and see the university on the world map, self-introspection becomes must," he said.