Profile of RC Vijayawada

Indira Gandhi National Open University established a Regional Centre at Vijayawada in June 2008, which is an economically, culturally and politically vibrant town in Krishna District, Andhra Pradesh. IGNOU Regional Centre Vijayawada is carved out of Regional Centre Hyderabad and it became operational from July 2008. Established with a view to provide decentralized student support services to the learners from all the coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh viz., Krishna, Guntur, Prakasam, Nellore, East Godavari, West Godavari, Visakhapatnam, Srikakulam and Vizianagaram besides Khammam in Telangana Region and Chittoor in Rayalaseema Region.  

It began its operations in 2008 with 26 learner support centres: 24 from RC Hyderabad and 02 from RC Koraput (Srikakulam and Vijayanagaram districts were under the jurisdiction of RC Koraput) and in a span of 03 years, before bifurcation of the jurisdiction of RC Vijayawada, it had expanded its base of learner support centres up to 49.

RC Vijayawada was bifurcated in March 2011 and a new Regional Centre at Visakhapatnam was established. With the establishment of RC, Visakhapatnam and after reallocation of the districts for these two Regional Centres, the Regional Centre, Vijayawada had the jurisdiction of five districts viz., Krishna, Guntur, Prakasam, Nellore and Chittoor. Khammam district was reallocated to RC Vijayawada from RC Visakhapatnam in 2013. 

As a strategy to reach the unreached and make IGNOU’s presence felt in the region, the RSD notified a Sub Regional Centre at Tirupati in 2013 to cater to the needs of the learners in the Rayalaseema Region. The three districts viz., Kadapa, Anantapur, and Kurnool which were under the jurisdiction of RC Hyderabad were attached to the SRC Tirupati. Thus the SRC at Tirupati catered to the educational needs of four districts of Rayalaseema: Chittoor, Kadapa, Anantapur and Kurnool. Consequent upon the Notification issued from RSD in Oct 2016, SRC, Tirupati has been subsequently closed and the activities of the Sub Regional Centre Tirupati were handed over to RC Vijayawada.  

In the reallocation of various districts to other RCs, Khammam district which was under RC Vijayawada has been shifted to RC Hyderabad, Telangana State.  w.e.f. July 2016.

RC Vijayawada has been catering to the educational needs of Krishna, Guntur, Prakasam, Nellore, Chittoor, Kadapa, Anantapur and Kurnool districts upto March 2022. With the Government of Andhra Pradesh issuing a Gazette Notification on 3rd April 2022 regarding Restructuring / Formation of new districts, the existing 8 districts have been restructured as 15 districts i.e Krishna, NTR, Guntur, Bapatla, Palnadu, Prakasam, SPSR Nellore, Tirupati, Chittoor, YSR, Annamayya, Kurnool, Nandyal, Ananthapur,  Sri Satya Sai districts and come under the jurisdiction of RC Vijayawada.

Currently RC Vijayawada is providing student support services to learners through 20 active Learner Support Centres in the region.