IGNOU to offer 4 new certificate courses from July

PATNA: Indira Gandhi National Open University’s (IGNOU) regional office is set to introduce four new medical and health certificate courses at the Nalanda Medical College and Hospital-Patna, Anugrah Narayan Magadh Medical College and Hospital-Gaya, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College-Bhagalpur and Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital-Muzaffarpur from the new academic session.
The university has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MHFW) for the six-month skill-based certificate courses, including general duty assistance, geriatric care assistance, phlebotomy assistance and home health assistance.A skill training cell will also be created at IGNOU’s regional office.
IGNOU-Patna’s regional director Abhilash Nayak told this newspaper on Tuesday that the MoU had been signed for 10 certificate courses, but only four would start from July.
Each course will have 30 seats each in the four medical colleges. “The eligibility criterion for all the courses is an Intermediate degree (biology). We will soon announce the dates for distribution and submission of application forms,” Nayak said.
Students will be assessed at the end of the term. Each course will focus on the theoretical portion (30 hours) at IGNOU-Patna’s study centre as well as practicals (80 hours) at the medical colleges along with a monthlong internship in hospitals.
Nayak said, “The study material package, which includes books, practical manuals, logbooks, audio-video study materials, web-board discussions, teleconferencing and assignments, has been developed by the School of Health Sciences, IGNOU head office.”