The most prominent distance learning universities and institutes provide flexible and quality learning opportunities to the students in a cost-effective manner. They provide equal opportunities to the students to learn and grow academically and build excellent careers.

One such noteworthy university, which is taking education to the heights of excellence, is none other than Lovely Professional University (LPU). Situated at Jalandhar, it is the largest single-campus private university in India. It has more than 30,000 students, around 4000 faculties and staff, and offers more than 200 programs.

About Lovely Professional Distance Education University (LPUDE)

Established with an objective to provide a convenient study mode of affordable and anytime-anywhere quality education in a technology-rich environment, the Open and Distance Learning (ODL) programmes offered by LPU are fulfilling the educational aspirations of the society.

LPU ODL programmes cater to the needs of students who cannot pursue formal education in colleges and universities. It is an endeavour of LPU aimed at ‘Bridging the Distance in Education’. The university has been offering various under-graduate and post-graduate ODL programmes in numerous disciplines for the last 14 years after getting due recognition from the concerned regulatory bodies like Distance Education Council (erstwhile), UGC – Distance Education Bureau, and AICTE from time to time.

The Erudite Leader

The glorious heights gained by Lovely Professional University (LPU) within a few years of its inception bear testimony to the incessant industrious efforts, indomitable will, and strong sense of commitment adopted by its Chancellor, Mr Ashok Mittal, who intends regeneration of the glory of ancient Indian education system. Envisioning ‘Transforming Education, Transforming India’, he- like a true global leader- is carrying forward the motto of “Think Big” in all fields related to propagation of industry needed education. Under his dynamic guidance, LPU has created a strong international presence, and has emerged as a “Centre of Excellence” in academics, research, placements, entrepreneurship, sports, cultural& CSR activities, and other allied fields. Benchmarking LPU with top international and national universities, he has raised LPU’s stature to get ranked in line with universities of the USA, Canada, and Indian IITs. Under Mr Mittal’s leadership, LPU has been scaling up regularly to get listed among top 200 universities of the world by 2025.Presently, it is a leading university with a world-class infrastructure; updated curriculum focused on latest aspects; live projects; international-national placements & internships with top global brands; and much more to applaud.

In a League of its Own

The university adopts technology driven blended system of delivery to offer its various ODL programmes at undergraduate and post-graduate levels in the disciplines of Computer Applications, Information Technology, Management, Commerce, Arts, and Library & Information Sciences.

Powered by its multiple award-winning online learning management system ‘LPU e-Connect’, LPU is strengthening quality and efficient delivery of higher education for open and distance learners. LPU e-Connect offers ‘any time any where’ strong and secure online connection that links LPU and its ODL students irrespective of any geographical boundaries. Based on enterprising web portal technology, LPU e-Connect truly automates various administrative and academic processes of ODL learners and minimizes the shortcomings of physical distances by providing 24*7 accessibility through its various useful features. It is a boon for students as they can learn as per their convenience along with their other commitments. The learning management system is also accessible through LPU Touch Mobile App which can be downloaded from popular app stores.

A separate website for open and distance education has been developed and maintained in-house with a dedicated team of qualified IT professionals. It is highly interactive and dynamic, providing easy access to information links and tools to meet the diverse needs of the students, faculty, and other visitors. The website is well structured, user friendly, and easy to navigate wherein all the links are categorized under relevant sections facilitating different users to fetch the desired information quickly.

The university has robust grievance handling system for open and distance learning students. It has a dedicated window at the university campus to cater to various academic and administrative needs. There is a dedicated call centre and email handling system to handle the students’ grievances/queries. Online relationship management system is also available on LPU e-Connect and mobile app for students to lodge their grievances, requests, and suggestions. Strong connect is maintained with students through various social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Blog, and also through periodic newsletters.

ODL students are given all the facilities, benefits, and opportunities at par with conventional mode students. Prominent achievers of diverse fields including Olympians, Arjuna Awardee, and speciallyabled persons are given scholarships and fee waivers for pursuing ODL programmes.

Overcoming the Pandemic

In order to tackle the massive challenges imposed by the coronavirus pandemic, LPU emerged with many innovative solutions which helped in simplifying procedures. This also helped the university to carry on with delivering excellent educational facilities to the students. The online solutions adopted by university for the facilitation of ODL students included the following provisions

• Quality of features available on learning management system (LPU e-Connect), mobile app (LPU Touch), and website(www.lpude.in) are enhanced to provide better online support to the learners.
• Online admission processing was further strengthened during lock-down period facilitating the aspiring students to complete their admission process sitting at home.
• During the lock-down period, the arrangement was made for the counsellors to work from home to keep the call centre functional for handling the urgent issues of students.
• Provision was made to conduct live virtual Personal Contact Programme (PCP) classes with various interactive features during which learners could interact live with the university faculty.
• Provision was also made to make the recorded PCP classes available in the LMS logins of the students for anytime anywhere access.
• Academic and professional enhancement workshops/ special classes were conducted in online mode which facilitated more participation of ODL students.
• Provision was made to conduct proctored online end term exam for ODL students.

Towards new Horizons

Being a premier academic institution of international repute, LPU has been contributing significantly to the industry and the society through excellence in teaching, learning, research, internationalization, entrepreneurship, and leadership.

The innovative pedagogical practices adopted by the university focus on hands on training and live projects. The university has always encouraged entrepreneurship, innovation, and practical knowledge over traditional classroom teaching. LPU has an incubation centre where potential business ideas are given a chance to become a reality. The university provides office space, seed capital, expert guidance, and other forms of support to the budding student entrepreneurs. As a result, hundreds of start-ups have already been launched and are running quite successfully and many more are expected. With its state-of-the-art research facilities like Central Instrumentation Facility and Industry Sponsored & Collaborated Labs, LPU has achieved many milestones in the area of Intellectual Property Development at global level.

Excellent Career Opportunities

LPU not only offers brilliant academic facilities, but also helps in building bright career pathways for the students. It provides at par opportunities to ODL students to compete, participate, and attend various national and international mega events held at the university campus such as Sports Meet, One India, One World, Spectra (Inter-School Cultural Fest), and Global Open Festival ‘Youth Vibe’. In many of such events, open and distance learning students have proved their mettle by achieving distinguished positions.

A division of student career services is operating at the university with a vision to equip students with versatile traits to match core needs of the corporate world. ODL students are provided with placement support by informing them from time to time about various placement drives at different locations to enable them to avail the opportunities. The credibility and efficacy of this system has captured the attention of the industry as many companies of repute are conducting placement drives and recruiting LPU ODL students.

Workshops, seminars, conferences, and guest lectures are conducted by the university as per the specific requirements of the open and distance learning students for their professional and academic enrichment.

The Success Saga

Throughout its illustrious journey of imparting exceptional education, LPU has made many noteworthy achievements.

• LPU has been ranked 36th amongst top universities in India (in1000-1200 band among world’s top Universities) by The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2022,
• Ranked 2nd in Business & Economics (501-600 band), 8th in Clinical & Health (601+ band),
• Ranked 9th in Computer Science (501-600 band), and 10th in Engineering & Life Sciences (601-800 band).
• Ranked amongst India’s top 100 Universities in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) Rankings of Govt. of India consecutively for the last two years.
• Ranked 62 amongst all the Government and Private Universities of India, 12th in Architecture, 23rd in Pharmacy, 24th in Law, 37th in Management, and 66th in Engineering as per the recent NIRF rankings 2021.
• In the recently held Tokyo Olympics, LPU students Mr. Neeraj Chopra (javelin throw) and hockey players Mr. Manpreet Singh (Captain), Mr. Varun Kumar, Mr. Shamsher Singh, Mr. Harmanpreet Singh, Mr. Mandeep Singh, and many more brought laurels to the country by bagging gold and bronze medals, respectively.
• Competition Success Review Top Online and Distance Learning Institute of India Award 2021
• Top 10 Most Promising Distance Learning Institutes in India for the year 2019 & 2020 by Higher Education Review
• 12th & 13th World Education Summit Awards for Innovation in Open and Distance Learning.
• National Education Excellence Award 2018 for being India’s Best University in Open, Distance & Online Learning by Career Connect.