New Delhi, Oct 9 (IANS) The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) Friday signed an agreement with the Papua New Guinea University of Technology for a number of educational and training programmes.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) envisages development of cultural, educational and scientific ties between the two universities. It will also encourage academic exchange and collaboration to advance education and training in the two institutions, said Silima Nanda, director (in charge) of IGNOU’s International Division.

Several IGNOU programmes are likely to start from July 2010, Nanda said, adding it would take three to four months to develop all the modalities involved in the process.

IGNOU will offer degree, diploma and certificate programmes at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

The open varsity will also “stress on research and development, application of information and communication technologies (ICTs) education and interactive multimedia and interactive education deliveries”.

“This will eventually expand the educational horizon of the island nation especially in areas of distance learning, multimedia and ICT,” the varsity said. There will also be faculty exchange and sharing of experiences time to time.

With this MoU, IGNOU has partnerships with 53 international institutions from 34 countries.