India's Best Distance Learning Institutes 2011

Just eleven out of the top 32 institutions in the objective ranking list find a place in the perception ranking. Of the 11, seven are in the public sector and only five have substantial web presence. In fact, Sikkim Manipal alone polled about 8% of the total sample size with over 500+ unique IP addresses, showing the substantial reach technology could achieve.
The objective data results have not changed much. Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), the leviathan with 500+ programmes and 3 million plus students still retains the pole position in India’s first-ever objective rating of Distance Learning Institutes. But not so surprisingly IMT has improved its ranking in objective criterion.


It has moved one level up to third position. The fact that it is a specialised institution focussed on management helped it a lot. This year with the change of guard at DEC, their database is in shambles and we could get only fresh data from 14 institutions. India has a long way to go in ensuring availability of comparable data (scroll down to view ranking methodology)
In 2010, we examined the top institutions under three broad domains namely, Reach & Resources, Learning and Experience, and Results & Efficiency, and the Top 10 were populated by five open universities, three private players and two dual mode State-level universities. And collectively the scores show the sector needs substantial investments in all three stages, input, process and output. In 2011, we have also ranked institutes based on these parameters (scroll down to view).
METHODOLOGY
The Universe for Open and Distance Learning Institutes (ODLIs) in India comprises 249 institutes, out of which 188 institutes are currently offering Distance Education Programmes. Given the nature of operations of ODLIs and the lack of adequate data with the Distance Education Council (DEC) as also in the public domain, shortlisting of top 50 institutions was done even this year on the basis of student enrolment data.
The logic being the popularity of the institutions, on the basis of their admissions. Careers360 then sent letters to these 50 institutions and based on the responses received from the institute as well as the data supplied by DEC, 32 institutes were finally chosen for ranking purpose. Further, visits were made to all the institutes that responded as well as to select study centres of others to build a robust database.
The input primarily looked at the reach, infrastructure and diversity of the institutions in providing distance education. The process emphasised on the quality of resources and delivery mechanism, while output focused on the performance of the institute in facilitating the trained student in getting a better prospect.
The parameters and the weights are as follows:
For the first time, we also brought out a perception-based ranking for DL institutes. Careers360 in association with Yahoo! India spearheaded the huge exercise that involved collating data on all the existing DL institutions with its attendant difficulties, as well as managing the online survey. Watch this space for it !



(The research and reporting team was led by Nitin Jindal and included Tanmay Perti, Pooja Mishra, and Nirmesh Srivastava. We place on record our thanks to the team at Yahoo! India who hosted the survey link on their site and ensured substantial participation of students)