IGNOU Regional Centre, Patna was the first Regional Centre for Bihar, which came into existence on May 4, 1991 with its jurisdiction spread over entire undivided state of Bihar. After the division of the state into Bihar and Jharkhand, another Regional Centre was established at Ranchi in March 2000 for the districts located in Jharkhand. Consequently, out of 33 Study Centres, 13 Study Centres came under the jurisdiction of Ranchi Regional Centre while 20 Study Centres remained associated with the Patna Regional Centre.
Further, on 4th April, 2005, a Sub-Regional Centre was established at Darbhanga, which was consequently upgraded to a full fledged Regional Centre on 6th December 2006. As a result of this, out of 37 districts of Bihar, 17 districts were attached to RC Patna and the rest 20 districts were attached to RC Darbhanga. Accordingly, out of 59 study centres, 37 remained with Patna Regional Centre and remaining 22 Study Centres came under the jurisdiction of Darbhanga Regional Centre. Further, the third Regional Centre at Bhagalpur was created out of Patna Regional Centre in October 2010, which had jurisdiction over three districts namely Bhagalpur, Banka and Munger.
Since its inception, the Regional Centre has grown continuously in terms of enrolment, offer of programmes, and expansion of network of SCs/PSCs/SSCs despite of its division into three Regional Centres viz, Ranchi, Darbhanga and Bhagalpur over a span of twenty seven years. Now the Regional Centre operates over 17 Districts of Bihar viz. Aurangabad, Arwal, Bhojpur, Buxar, Gaya, Jamui, Jehanabad, Kaimur, Lakhisarai, Nalanda, Nawada, Patna, Rohtas, Saran, Sheikhpura, Siwan and Vaishali. At present, it has a network of 48 Study Centres comprising of 21 Regular Study Centres, 15 Programme Study Centres and 12 Special Study Centres.
With the support and cooperation of IGNOU headquarters, the state administration and educational institutions of repute, the Regional centre has become a household name in the state of Bihar and has provided opportunities of quality higher education to more than five lakh people. The Regional Centre is planning in a big way to collaborate with the Department of Education, Government of Bihar, the universities and colleges in the state to provide opportunities to the youth in skill development and enhancement of their employability. Likewise capacity building of the employees working in public and private sector undertakings, government organisations and NGOs is being facilitated through the collaboration of the Regional Centre with various departments in the state, leading NGOs and institutions of repute. Sincere efforts are being put in to take quality higher education to every doorstep in the region by extending the network of Study Centres in each and every corner and activating all the programmes offered by the University. The ultimate goal of the Regional Centre is to have a strong social presence by facilitating the educational empowerment of the masses, the downtrodden in particular and contribute to the increase of GER in the region.
