SREENARYANA GURU OPEN UNIVERSITY

Sreenarayana Guru Open University (SGOU) is a public state open university located in Kollam, Kerala, established in 2020 by The Sreenarayana Guru Open University Act, 2021 (Kerala Act No 1 of 2021). The first open university in Kerala, it was approved by the University Grants Commission (UGC) in 2021. It is the only public university in Kerala to offer distance education, with its establishment, all the distance education courses offered by state-run universities—University of Kerala, Mahatma Gandhi University, University of Calicut, and Kannur University came under the administrative control and purview of the new university. The university has been named after Narayana Guru and has its headquarters at Kureepuzha in Kollam.

The university was established by the promulgation of an 45th Ordinance of 2020 to that effect by Hon'ble governor of Kerala on 25 September 2020 and was dedicated to the public by Sri. Pinarayi Vijayan, Chief Minister of Kerala, on 2 October 2020 in a function held at Kollam. Dr. P M Mubarak Pasha was appointed as the first vice-chancellor and Dr. S V Sudheer as the first pro-vice-chancellor of the university.

INDIRA GANDHI NATIONAL OPEN UNIVERSITY

Indira Gandhi National Open University, known as IGNOU, is a public research university located at Maidan Garhi, New Delhi, India. Named after the former Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi, the university was established in 1985 with a budget of ₹20 million, after the Parliament of India passed the Indira Gandhi National Open University Act, 1985 (IGNOU Act 1985). IGNOU is run by the central government of India, and with a total active enrolment of over 7.14 million students, it is the largest university in the world. IGNOU was founded to serve the Indian population by means of distance and open education, providing quality higher education opportunities to all segments of society.

It also aims to encourage, coordinate and set standards for distance and open education in India, and to strengthen the human resources of India through education. Apart from teaching and research, extension and training form the mainstay of its academic activities. It also acts as a national resource centre, and serves to promote and maintain standards of distance education in India. IGNOU hosts the Secretariats of the SAARC Consortium on Open and Distance Learning (SACODiL) and the Global Mega Universities Network (GMUNET), initially supported by UNESCO.

JAIN UNIVERSITY

Jain University, officially JAIN (Deemed-to-be University), is a private deemed university in Bengaluru, India. Originating from Sri Bhagawan Mahaveer Jain College, it was conferred the deemed-to-be-university status in 2009. In August 2019 Jain University opened its off campus in Kochi, Kerala. Jain (Deemed-to-be University) includes the following colleges and centres, all in Bangalore. The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) ranked the institution 79 among universities and 101-150 overall in 2020. It also ranked it 117 among engineering colleges and 86 among business schools. Outlook India ranked it 68 among universities.

ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY

Aligarh Muslim University (abbreviated as AMU) is a public central university in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India, which was originally established by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan as the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College in 1875. Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College became Aligarh Muslim University in 1920, following the Aligarh Muslim University Act. It has three off-campus centres in AMU Malappuram Campus (Kerala), AMU Murshidabad Centre (West Bengal), and Kishanganj Centre (Bihar).

The university offers more than 300 courses in traditional and modern branches of education, and is an institute of national importance as declared under seventh schedule of the Constitution of India at its commencement. Aligarh Muslim University offers over 300 degrees and is organised around 12 faculties offering courses in a range of technical and vocational subjects, as well as interdisciplinary subjects. In 2011, it opened two new centres in West Bengal and Kerala for the study of MBAs and Integrated Law. The university has around 28,000 students and a faculty of almost 1,500 teaching staff. Internationally, AMU was ranked 1001–1200 in the QS World University Rankings of 2023 and 271–280 in Asia. It was ranked 801–1000 in the world by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings of 2023, 201–250 in Asia in 2022 and 251–300 among emerging economies. AMU was also ranked 901–1000 in the Academic Ranking of World Universities of 2022.