Higher Education for Women through Open University : Issues and Strategies

Education is essential for ameliorating the present condition of women in India. Education has a direct impact on women empowerment as it creates in them awareness about their rights, their capabilities and the choice and opportunities available to them. Although the process of empowerment (formal education) takes place at various levels of education : primary, secondary, higher, technical or higher technical and research, it is the higher education which gives women options, empower them to be independent thinkers and agents of change. Indian higher education system is one of the largest in the world. Higher education in India is passing through a phase of unprecedented expansion marked by an explosion in the volume of students and a substantial expansion in the number of institution. There has been phenomenal expansion of educational opportunities for women in the field of higher education both general and technical. Open and Distance Learning (ODL) system in India is playing a vital role in imparting higher education to ever increasing number of aspiring learners especially women learners. This mammoth educational programme in its course of operation is facing a number of challenges related to all the five elements of a learning situation: instructor, subject matter, teaching equipment and materials, physical facilities and learners. The present book is a collection of some of the papers presented during a two-day UGC Sponsored National Seminar on `Higher Education for Women through Open University: Issues and Challenges' on 23rd — 24th August, 2013. The seminar aimed at finding out the issues that are challenging Open and Distance Learning (ODL) Institutions in imparting education especially to women learners and strategies for the same.