IGNOU explores US Community College model for massive outreach

New Delhi, Nov 4 : The best of the American model of the community colleges would be considered for integration in the IGNOU community college system, University Pro-Vice Chancellor Dr Latha Pillai has said.

Speaking at a seminar of IGNOU and American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) to evaluate strengths of the American model of Community Colleges (CCs) under the aegis of US-India Educational Foundation (USIEF) here last evening, Dr Pillai said, ''We are open to ideas. We will explore the best practices in the US system and examine whether these are compatible with Indian conditions.'' A two-member team of AACC, headed by Dr Judith Irwin, Director of International Programmes and Services of the AACC, discussed a slew of novel ideas in the areas of social development through Community Colleges.

Dr Irwin said the Community Colleges constituted the largest segment of higher education in the US. These included nearly 1,200 institutions with an enrolment of 11 million students, six million of whom were seeking a degree or certificate.

According to an estimate, in the US, the Community Colleges ensured 83 per cent of the tertiary education, of which higher education was only a part. Set against the achievements in the US, the figure was merely 11 per cent in India.

Dr Irwin said that in the US, there were 1195 CCs. Of these 177 belonged to independent bodies, 31 to tribal organisations and 987 to the government. ''The CCs there have four categories, for Freshers, Sophomores, Juniors and Seniors. After the Associate Degrees, the freshers and sophomores go vertically mobile to do their graduations and post-graduations and also post-doctoral research.

''Our alumni from the CCs include Pulitzer Prize winners, Nobel Prize winners, Chief Executives, Scientists, Governors, US Congressional Representatives, Producers and actors of films, documentary films and athletes,'' she added.

Over 46 per cent of all post-secondary level education was in the CCs in the US, who studied in a system of 6.5 million credit programmes, 5.5 million non-credit programmes and the average age of the enrolled students in the US CCs was 28, Dr Irwin said.

Most community colleges provided open access, enabling both the US and international students to benefit from the high-quality and low-cost courses they offered.

Asked about the acceptability in other countries of the US model of Community Colleges, Dr Irwin said, ''Community Colleges are providing assistance to other countries such as China, Thailand and Vietnam where there is a heightened interest to adopt the US community college model.'' IGNOU Vice Chancellor Professor V N Rajasekharan Pillai said that of 700 applicants from all parts of the country, IGNOU followed a rigorous process of assessment and registered 50 community colleges in July this year. Over 12,000 students from these colleges will take their first semester examinations in December.

Referring to IGNOU’s recent tie-up with Indian Army for setting up community colleges to empower the in-service and retired personnel, the Vice Chancellor expressed hoped that in about five years time the IGNOU enrolment figure would reach five million, in which the enrolment in Community Colleges would be a major factor.

The Army colleges apart, scopes were wide open to turn many of the Common Service Centres in village panchayats into vibrant Community Colleges by that time.

--UNI

(c) 2009 Published with permission from United News of India.
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