GetMyUni's Verdict on NSOU

Midhun Hari

“Considered to be one of the premier Open Universities in West Bengal, the  NSOU offers its students a great opportunity at distance learning. However, the University still has to improve in multiple aspects including infrastructure and Placements.”

The Netaji Subhas Open University was founded in 1997 and gives the opportunity for students from the state of West Bengal and beyond the opportunity to pursue distance education. The University is known for its high quality distance education programs. However, as with any University providing regular curriculum or otherwise, the University has room to improve in various aspects.

The major criticisms that can be darted at the university are that first, it lacks in the infrastructure and secondly, that  it does not have a dedicated placement cell. The poor infrastructure is not enough to accommodate the large number of students that are enrolled at the university. The students who graduate from the university are left to find a job by themselves. This results in the university having very poor placement records. 

Table of Contents

• Affordable Courses
• Absence of Placement Cell
• Supportive Faculty
• Moderate Infrastructure
• Absence of Student Life
• Is NSOU Worth it?

Affordable Courses

The University offers various courses to students, across several disciplines. The students can select the course of their choice during admission. It can be said that NSOU offers a wide range of courses for the students that want to pursue any career.

The courses are offered at University at the diploma, post graduate diploma, Undergraduate, graduate, and Doctoral level. The students are provided with high quality study materials (Self Learning Materials) for their courses for each semester. As is the practice in distance learning, students are expected to prepare for their exams using the study materials. Students can also download the study materials from the official website for free.

Studying at NSOU is not costly at all and is very affordable. The maximum tuition fee charged by the university is INR 5200 per year. This makes it a very good choice for students from economically backward communities and also for working professionals who want to progress in their careers.

Absence of Placement Cell

As mentioned earlier, NSOU does not have a Placement Cell to help its students with securing jobs. This is a major drawback of studying at the university. However, the students have managed to find jobs with their effort.

What the university does have, in place of a dedicated placement cell, is something called a “Placement Facilitation Service”. This is a portal wherein students from the NSOU School of Vocational Studies can upload their documents for potential employers to check.

As per unofficial reports, based on information collected from students, about 70% of the students were placed either in full time jobs or internships. However, the average salary offered to students was relatively low at INR 3 lakh per annum.

Supportive Faculty

Generally, all the students have found the faculty to be friendly, knowledgeable and supportive. Most of the faculty members are qualified with a doctoral degree and have proficient teaching experience. The students meet the faculty when they are called for live sessions at the study centres.

Faculty and Students Interaction

The student-faculty interaction mostly happens through regularly scheduled personnel contact programs and online live sessions. The students are to visit the regional centres for the physical classes that happen a few times every semester. The students are alerted of the live session through institute channels and the official website. The medium of instruction at the university is Bengali. Students are allowed to present their assignments and write their examinations in English or Hindi.

Moderate Infrastructure

The NSOU has an HQ building located at Salt lake city, kolkata and 3 regional centres located in Kalyani, Durgapur and Jalpaiguri. The campuses can be considered to be well maintained. Additionally, the university has more than 150 study centres across the state for the counselling of the students.

The campuses consist of the classrooms and labs. The regional centres are maintained to provide spaces for personnel contact programs and conducting labs. The lush green Kalyani regional centre is well equipped with virtual classrooms and the labs for the different subjects. The Durgapur centre only has normal classrooms and 2 labs. The Jalpaiguri campus only has classrooms and an exam hall. 

As a large number of students study at the university, it is in more need of infrastructure development. More regional centres and better facilities at the existing campuses will go a long way.

The NSOU Library is contained in the Kalyani campus. The university library is a mere 2200 sq feet which is relatively small compared to most of the other universities. It does have an e-library facility, WiFi and reading rooms for students. However, overall, the library infrastructure also needs considerable development.

Moreover, the University has also set up a strategic partnership with the existing network of Public Libraries to cater to the needs of its students. A total of 7 libraries have been set up across the state of West Bengal under this initiative.

Absence of Student Life

The NSOU conducts several events throughout the year, in online mode and at the NSOU HQ. The students are welcomed to participate in these events. However, compared to regular universities, the university is not active. The student life at the university can hence be said to be sub par.

As for the student population, the majority of the students are from the West Bengal state. Hence, the diversity is minimal at the university. There have been no incidents of discrimination or hostility that students have reported so far. Hence the university can be said to be safe for the students studying there.

Since Netaji Subhas Open University mainly provides distance learning, students do not experience the campus life like other regular colleges. There is also no strict rules or dress code that the students have to follow while for few of the offline classes that take place..

What Are the Attendance Requirements at the University?

It is optional for students to attend the Personal Contact Programme (PCP) conducted at the regional centres of the university. However, a minimum of 75% attendance in ‘Laboratory Counseling-cum-Evaluation Session (LCES)’ is mandatory to be eligible to attend the term end exam.

Is NSOU Worth it?

NSOU, as an open university, offers a great opportunity to working professionals and other students that want to further their education as a distance learning program. However, like most other universities and educational institutions, it needs an overhaul in some aspects to cater to the students needs. 

Here are some pros and cons tabulated for the sake of the prospective students:

*Source: wbnsou.ac.in