University · Distance
IGNOU — BA English & MA English
Course codes, the assignment cycle, the term-end examination, and how to study a programme with nobody standing over you.
Studying English at a distance
The Indira Gandhi National Open University is the route most working students, most late starters and a very large number of NET aspirants take to a degree in English. It is open-entry at undergraduate level, it costs a fraction of a regular programme, and the study material it produces is genuinely good — the MEG blocks are better written than many commercial guidebooks.
What IGNOU does not give you is a classroom. Nobody notices if you fall behind, nobody reminds you that assignments are due, and the whole structure assumes a self-directed learner. That is the real difficulty of the programme, and it is a difficulty of discipline rather than of intellect.
The two programmes
BA English Honours — BAEGH
The undergraduate programme, built from core English courses together with ability-enhancement and generic elective courses. Eligibility is a pass at the senior secondary level. It is a common feeder into the MA, and into UGC-NET afterwards.
MA English — MEG
A two-year postgraduate programme built from eight-credit courses, combining compulsory courses with optional modules chosen by area of interest — British literature, Indian writing, American literature, new literatures, and writings from the margins.
IGNOU has revised the MA English structure more than once, including an online variant, and the number of credits and the list of compulsory courses differ between versions. Confirm the compulsory courses and credit requirement for your admission cycle in the official programme guide before choosing electives — this is the single most common mistake IGNOU students make.
MEG course codes
Every course carries eight credits. You will meet these codes on your assignments, your date sheet and your hall ticket, so it is worth knowing which is which by name.
| Code | Course |
|---|---|
| MEG-01 | British Poetry |
| MEG-02 | British Drama |
| MEG-03 | British Novel |
| MEG-04 | Aspects of Language |
| MEG-05 | Literary Criticism and Theory |
| MEG-06 | American Literature |
| MEG-07 | Indian English Literature |
| MEG-08 | New Literatures in English |
| MEG-09 | Australian Literature |
| MEG-10 | English Studies in India |
| MEG-11 | American Novel |
| MEG-12 | A Survey Course in Twentieth Century Canadian Literature |
| MEG-13 | Writings from the Margins |
| MEG-14 | Contemporary Indian Literature in English Translation |
| MEG-15 | Comparative Literature |
| MEG-16 | Indian Folk Literature |
Assignments and the term-end examination
The IGNOU year has two halves that students consistently confuse, and getting this wrong costs an entire cycle.
- Assignments come first. Each course has a compulsory assignment which must be submitted, and accepted, before you are eligible to sit that course's term-end examination. Miss the submission window and the course is postponed by six months regardless of how well you know it.
- Term-end examinations are held twice a year, in June and December. You choose which cycle to appear in, course by course, by filling the examination form within its own deadline.
- Your final result combines both. Assignment marks carry real weight, and they are marks you can earn calmly at home with the study material open. Treat them as free and take them seriously.
- Deadlines shift. IGNOU extends dates often and announces it quietly. Check the official site rather than relying on a group message.
How to actually use IGNOU material
A word of advice from the other side of the desk: the MEG blocks are written to be read slowly, and most students skim them once before the examination and then complain that the paper was hard. Read one unit properly a week, write a short summary of it in your own words, and you will finish a course comfortably in a semester.
If you are also preparing for UGC-NET, the overlap is enormous — MEG-05 alone covers a substantial part of the criticism unit. Study the two together rather than treating them as separate syllabi.