OneWorld.net (U.S.)

New Delhi: The inaugural ceremony of the 2005 International Council for open and Distance Education (ICDE) International conference was held in the historical place-the Jawahar Lal Nehru Memorial Museum and Library Auditorium. Around 400 academicians and intellectuals from India and abroad were present. Prof. H.P Dikshit, Vice Chancellor, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) welcomed the Chief Guest, and other dignitaries.

He informed the gathering that this conference will bring together about 250 participants from India and almost an equal number from Europe Union, North America, Asia, Africa, Australia and the South Pacific. Prof Dikshit expressed his satisfaction on the role played by distance education and said that information technology has made it possible to provide best education to the remotest part of the country. Distance education has emerged as a silent revolution due to its cost effectiveness, and access.

He stressed the growth of distance education in the country and the achievement of IGNOU in the last 20 years would not have been possible without the international support and constant guidance of the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India. He informed about the international collaboration initiatives of IGNOU in the context of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) nation (SACODiL) and the GMUNET (Mega University Network) both of which are under the Chairmanship of IGNOU Vice Chancellor. In this context, he told that the time is ripe for more collaboration in the field of Open, Distance and e Leraning to make learning a sustainable.

Prof. Helmut Hoyer, Acting President of ICDE delivered the Presidential Address. He stated that IGNOU is one of the Mega universities of the world with more than 1.3 million students, and ICDE is honoured to organize the conference here in Delhi. He congratulated IGNOU for sustained production of high quality learning materials.

Minister for Human resource Development, Government of India, Sh Arjun Singh delivered the inaugural address. He expressed satisfaction that open and distance education system in India, is not only working together the network of 12 open universities and 106 dual-mode university distance education institutes (DEIs), but there is also considerable synergy with the traditional system of campus based education.

The country has high hopes in the contribution that ODL could make in improving the Gross Enrolment Ratio in higher education from the present low of nine or so, he said. With the successful launch of Edusat by the Indian Space Research Organisation(ISRO) –a dedicated satellite for education—we are into an era where both internet and Intranet can be used for transmission, interaction, dialogue, digital repositories content, and for virtual education and research.

He expressed his happiness that under the able guidance of Prof Dikshit a tremendous is being made to set up several networks including N-NODE and IUC to take the benefits of satellite supported ICT enabled education to all corners of the country.

Sir John Daniel presented the keynote Address-- Collaboration in the time of Competition. He deliberated on the historical growth of distance education and emphasized that collaboration is not a new phenomenon. Sir Daniel discussed the recent developments on institutional collaboration and cross-border education including efforts of international organisations such as the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) and UNESCO.

He identified four principles for successful collaboration-- inter-institutional cooperation: clarity of purpose, smaller group for successful collaboration of partners, contribution from each member, and institutional committees. He said multilateral collaboration should follow inter-institutional cooperation.

On 21st November Prof Helmut Hoyer delivered a keynote address on the theme “Internationalization: collaboration and networking-the perspective of Fern Universitat in Hagen”. In his three part presentation he discussed the following themes: • Meaning of international collaborations in DE and best ways to work it out • Functioning of ICDE • Information about Fern Universitat, Hagen in light of its collaborative efforts and policies cut out to benefits the German speaking students. Around 50 research school and academician presented their paper on 21 and 22nd November 2006. Dr Nilay Ranjan from Oneworld south Asia also presented a paper on ICT enabled education and development.

Dr Nilay Ranjan