The female applicants for undergraduate programs in ‘Indira Gandhi National Open University’ (IGNOU) make up as low as 40% of the total applications. According to the recent data released by IGNOU, only 80,000 female candidates have enrolled for the UG program which is in stark contrast to two lakh male enrollments. This has been observed both in open and distance learning undergraduate programs.
Meanwhile, for postgraduate programs, the female enrolment rate has been observed to be much higher than the male enrolment. According to the PG application data, around 12,768 females and 9,332 males had enrolled for the postgraduate programs including MA and M.Com. For M.A. in Women and Gender Studies, there were around 147 female enrolments against a meagre 27 male applications.
Enrolment data of students in the university for the academic session of 2018 -19 for both UG and PG program.
IGNOU July 2018 Enrolment Data – UG Programs:
| Programmes | Males | Females |
| Bachelor of Arts | 1,02,560 | 64,813 |
| BBA | 596 | 141 |
| Bachelor of Commerce (Finance and Cost Accounting) | 99 | 47 |
| BCA | 8322 | 2213 |
| Bachelor of Science | 9631 | 6291 |
| Bachelor of Social Work | 2102 | 1630 |
| Bachelor of Library and Information Science | 4928 | 4344
|
IGNOU July 2018 Enrolment Data – PG Programs:
| Programmes | Number of Males | Number of Females |
| M.A. in Women and Gender Studies | 27 | 147 |
| M.A. in Adult Education | 47 | 90 |
| M.A. in Anthropology | 287 | 254 |
| M.A. in Development Studies | 172 | 94 |
| M.A. in Distance Education | 133 | 244 |
| M.A. Economics | 3183 | 3254 |
| M.A. in Education | 616 | 1140 |
| M.A. in English | 5482 | 11,112 |
| M.A. in Gandhi and Peace Studies | 46 | 21 |
| M.A. in Gender and Development Studies | 27 | 81 |
| M.A. in Hindi | 2863 | 6258 |
| M.A. in History | 5949 | 6381 |
| M.A. in Philosophy | 623 | 379 |
| M.A. in Political Science | 8794 | 9914 |
| M.A. in Psychology | 2238 | 4712 |
| M.A. in Public Administration | 3348 | 1653 |
| M.A. in Rural Development | 2109 | 1395 |
| M.Com. | 9332 | 12,768 |