New Delhi: Higher education institutes in the country should strive harder to be knowledge systems, rather than just learning systems, chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC) Ved Prakash said here on Tuesday.

"Most of the institutions fall in the category of learning systems and not knowledge systems. Research and teaching are two distinct activities today and are rarely used together," Prakash said at the concluding ceremony of the Indira Gandhi National Open University's (IGNOU) staff training programme.

The staff training and research institute of distance education (STRIDE) was a 21-day refresher programme in distance education at the university headquarters in the capital.

Prakash said nearly 4.6 million students in the country pursue education through distance mode.

According to him, IGNOU accounts for 90 percent of the figure. "We would like to increase the enrolment from 4.6 million to 6.6 million in distance mode of education," Prakash added.

Headquartered in the national capital, the UGC works on maintenance of standards of university education and providing recognition to varsities.

"There is a need to overcome the barriers that have been created between the conventional and distance education systems, which are in fact complementary to each other," said M. Aslam, vice chancellor of IGNOU.

The university will soon be establishing its study centre in Zambian Open University for three masters in business administration (MBA) programmes. IANS