Distance learning has some inbuilt advantages as a person can go for distance learning while sitting at any place and doing some job in parallel. There is enough flexibility as one can plan ones time table accordingly. Moreover distance courses are affordable as compared to the regular courses. There are many good distance education universities in our country. Some of them are -
1. Symbiosis Centre for Distance Learning, Pune - This is one among the reputed distance education providers and offers Masters courses, Diploma programs and other miscellaneous courses in various streams. Their programs are designed keeping in view the industry needs of modern times.
2. Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi - This open university was formed in 1985 subsequent to an act of Parliament and is one of the most popular and chosen institute for distance education. They have a large number of courses to offer to its students and the program fees are also reasonable. The courses are completed with a modular approach and there is a lot of flexibility in pursuing them.
3. Sikkim Manipal University, Gangtok - This is another popular institute with the students aspiring for distance learning courses. It was established in 1995 and is the first Govt-Private set up (PPP model) in this region. Initially it was thought to cater the needs of the local students to train them in education and healthcare but subsequently it progressed much beyond its envisaged scope and students from all over India started to avail its distance courses.
4. University of Mumbai, Mumbai - This university is also providing many distance learning courses in Arts, Commerce, Science and Management areas. There is a good range of these courses for undergraduate as well as post graduate levels.
5. Annamalai University, Annamalainagar, Tamil Nadu - The distance education directorate of this university was carved out in 1979 and today they offer many distance learning programs in Arts, Science, Law, Bioinformatics, Applied Psychology, Fashion Designing, Management, Yoga, Music, Safety etc. This is also a popular choice for students seeking distance learning.
6. Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Open University, Ahmedabad - This open university came into being after the Gujarat State Assembly enacted an act in 1994. It offers many distance learning courses and has an enrolment of about 1 lakh students. It has good number of study centres and has a motto of providing higher education to all the classes of the society.
7. IMT Distance and Open Learning Institute, Ghaziabad - This is being managed by Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad and offers a whole range of courses catering to the undergraduate as well as post graduate streams. Its
management courses are much popular with the students.
8. Osmania University Centre of Distance Education, Hyderabad - It also offers a number of courses like BA / B.Sc. / B.Com. / BBA and MA / M.Com. / M.Sc. and PG Diploma etc. It is also a good choice of distance institute for the students aspiring for these distance learning courses.