The Central Information Commission (CIC) has brought a ray of hope for the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) students that were enrolled for the Higher National Diploma (HND) and B.I.T. courses, which the university is running in association with Edexcel, a UK-based university. Even after waiting for years, many students who had pursued the courses did not receive their certificates from Edexcel, which turned all their hard work futile. The IGNOU on the other hand does not have any answer as to why Edexcel has not issued certificates to these successful students. Sailesh Gandhi, Information Commissioner CIC has asked the Vice-Chancellor (VC) of IGNOU Professor Rajasekharan Pillai to look into the matter and send a report to the Commission by April 30. Many students have been facing this trauma of not receiving any information related to their certificates either from IGNOU or from Edexcel.
The matter came into the notice of CIC after Aslam Ansari filed an application about his son Obaidurrahman who had successfully pursued the HND and B.I.T. courses from IGNOU in 2005-06 and completed his course in December 2005. Some of the students had received their certificates by Edexcel while others did not. No reason was provided to the rest of the students for non-issuing of certificates. Even after Aslam Ansari gave an application to CIC in September 2008, no response was given by IGNOU initially. However, after some time IGNOU replied that the Edexcel University would issue the HND certificates. It further said that it was in constant touch with the Edexcel authorities related to the issue and trying to fix a meeting between authorities of both the bodies and sort out the all the issues relates to issuance of certificates. A meeting is soon expected. However, as there were no steps taken by IGNOU for few months, CIC has expressed its dissatisfaction towards IGNOU for not helping out its students. While Edexcel and IGNOU have no explanation for the lapse, the Edexcel course continues to run in India.
