Rajarshi Tandon Open University to start many new courses

THERE IS a good news for the students of the State wishing to opt for the distance mode of education to enhance their knowledge and qualification. The Uttar Pradesh Rajarshi Tandon Open University (UPRTOU) has decided to start around a dozen new courses for them from the forthcoming academic session— a move that will also help the varsity gain a firmer foothold in the State."We have taken the help of leading experts in designing the courses and in finalising the course content. Preparation of study material for these courses is in final stages," informed UPRTOU Vice-Chancellor Prof Kedar Nath Singh Yadav.

The initiative to start the new courses comes in the wake of a series of achievements for the varsity during the recent past including starting of the online courses and getting connected with the educational satellite Edusat.

"Though Uttar Pradesh Rajarshi Tandon Open University has achieved a lot in the short duration of it coming into existence as compared to other universities offering distance education, we are now striving to emerge as the best open university of the State and are systematically upgrading ourselves to achieve this goal," Prof KNS Yadav added. He said that the new courses that the varsity is starting are mainly professional as well as society-oriented in nature and have been decided upon by keeping the interest and the need of the open university's constantly growing number of students.

"Our aim is to give education to the youngsters that can help them stand on their own feet and contribute in the progress of the country. This is the reason that the new courses being started by us include a certificate course in Population and Health Education, a PG course in Mass Communication, a PG Diploma in Marketing and another one in Human Resource Management, a PG Diploma course in E-commerce and Consumer Protection and MBA in Fashion Technology," Prof Yadav said.

"Work on some other courses too are underway," he added.

Prof Yadav said that the study material of many a new course have already been finalised while work is on for some others.

"A number of courses like PG in Mass Communication are very much in demand today as at most of the universities the departments of journalism and mass communication have a number of vacancies.

However, despite having the knowledge many a person are unable to bag the jobs due to want of degrees ad certificates. Such people will no longer have to be disappointed," Prof Yadav claimed.Among future plans of UPRTOU, Prof Yadav said, he wished to start training courses for people involved in various industries of the state like the glass making industry, cloth mills and carpet weaving factories.

"This will greatly help the unskilled persons to learn new things and polish their knowledge besides earning a certificate too. This will in turn help in further improving the quality of products being produced in the state by these industries," he said.Prof Yadav informed that there are also plans to focus on the rural areas of the state during the coming months. UPRTOU is today offering over 50 courses via distance education mode for the people.