The development and acceptance of "Distance Education" both in the developed and developing countries is growing fast. The reason behind such acceptance is its flexibility approach and users friendly technique of education that can provide a viable alternative for everyone who needs to pursue education further to expand his horizons of knowledge, to sharpen his existing learning, to upgrade his knowledge, skill and training and thereby, to be a life-time learner and a fulfilling action.
Gujarat has a modest share in the movement for Distance learning at higher education level. Out of the 7 statutory Universities, 3 Universities have been running external degree courses for years. Of late, DTE (Directorate of Technical Education) has been offering distance learning diploma courses in civil, mechanical and electrical engineering. Some NGOs are also operating in this field at one level or another.Thus, the culture of distance learning does prevail in the state which augurs well for the BAOU. The BAOU has, therefore, a fertile soil to plough and disseminate open learning through regional language on a much larger scale