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IGNOU @ ICA: I feel like it was the perfect choice for me
By Kedar R. Kunwar
Had you told the 16 year old me that I would eventually go to an open university, I would have probably laughed at you. Now, after maturing enough like cheese, it feels like it was a perfect choice.
Just like everybody else I started my high school full of optimism and hope as a science student. My assignments were on time and was very active in the discussions in my class. Things were going quite well and I graduated. After high school I started reconsidering what I needed to pursue for higher studies. So I set off abroad for my professional degree in IT. I had to work and study at the same time which was quite hard. I had to manage paying expensive accommodation and tuition. I began to lose interest. I know now that this happened because at the time, I was far too immature to realise how important academics was.
I knew that I still really wanted to go to University, but I felt as though my options had been severely limited by my own lack of determination and hard work. At this point I decided just to stick with my current education flow along with my part time job. I somehow completed my degree which took me 5 years to complete and came back to Nepal.
As then started to work for a tech company as a marketeer in Kathmandu. I still wanted to go to a university for further studies but I was too used to a work schedule. Since that was the case I decided to join International Center for Academics (ICA). ICA is one of the
international study center for Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU). This allowed me to work AND study, all from the comfort from my home. There of course were more obstacles to overcome as time was limited and I knew I was going to have a hard time managing it.
I enrolled onto Masters in Computer Applications (MCA) programe at ICA affiliated to IGNOU and off I went. I received my study materials and then everything went well.
The content of the course has been astonishingly varied so far. That is something that I particularly love about studying here at ICA. Every week there is a different course to study. Things were a little quiet few weeks in the beginning, but I don't think any of the weeks were quiet since then. This balance of work and study is keeping me on my toes.
There also were plenty of days where I had to drag myself to the study desk but I am sure many regular students can also relate to that. The whole point is I am as motivated as ever and also up to date with work.
The whole challenge of open study at ICA is timekeeping. Balancing work and study is key to life, which at times can be quite difficult but also incredibly rewarding.
Fast forwarding at the moment, I am currently studying MCSP-060 which has been a little challenging for me. I love projects but this one came as a surprise when I realised how quickly the course content ramped up form school level project reporting into University level final year project in computing.
My advice: New students should try to their absolute best to manage time well. They need to make a timetable, at least a rough guideline to how many hours of study they can manage in a week. That will make them know when one should be relaxing, studying or working.
