Indira Gandhi Open University, the largest mega university in the democratic world, was established by an act of Indian Parliament in 1985, and started offering academic programmes in 1987. Today, it serves the educational aspirations of about 3 million students in 34 countries, including India, through 21 schools of studies and a network of 61 regional centers, five sub-regional centers, 2300 study centres/tele-learning centers, 52 partner institutions overseas. The university offers 1500 certificate, diploma, degree and doctoral programmes comprising 900 courses, through a strength of 380 faculty members.