Academic Bank of Credits

Why in news?

• The Centre has brought all recognized higher education institutions, irrespective of their accreditation or rankings, under the ambit of the Academic Bank of Credit (ABC), enabling students to switch between institutions and multiple entries and exits to and from the programme.

About Academic Bank of Credits:

• As per National Education Policy 2020, the Academic Bank of Credits (ABC) has been envisaged to facilitate the academic mobility of students with the freedom to study across the Higher Education Institutions in the country with an appropriate "credit transfer" mechanism from one programme to another, leading to attain a Degree/ Diploma/PG-diploma, etc.
• The University Grants Commission (UGC) in July 2021 notified ABC and issued the UGC (Establishment and Operation of Academic Bank of Credits in Higher Education) Regulations, 2021.
• Any university or college can participate and register to come under the ABC framework. This will include both central and state universities, deemed-to-be universities and autonomous institutions.

How it works?

• The credits earned by students will be deposited in their ABC ‘Academic Account.’
• If the student moves to a different institution, the accumulated credits get transferred to the account of the new institution.
• Credits may be transferred from an institution to be accumulated in another programme offered by the same or another institution.
• The academic bank credit(s) can only be shared from institutions, not directly from the student.
• Only credits submitted by an authorized institution will be accepted for storage and validation by the ABC.
• Under this system, student will open a unique Academic Bank Account in digital form; and the account holder shall be provided with a unique ID and access to the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP).
• Since the credits earned under the ABC scheme are flexibly kept for long duration in the interest of students, the validity of such credits earned will be to a maximum period of 7 years or as specified separately by ABC for different subject disciplines to allow the redemption of credits after the date of earning such credits.

Objectives of ABC:

• To promote student centricity with learner-friendly approaches in higher education across the country and promote more inter-disciplinary approach in higher education
• To enable students to select the best courses/combination of courses to suit their aptitude and knowledge thirst.
• To permit students to choose a pace for their studies along with the associated logistics and cost.
• To allow students to tailor their degrees or make specific modifications/specialisations rather than undergoing the rigid, regularly prescribed degree/courses of a single university/autonomous college.
• To enable multiple entry-multiple exit for students as envisaged under NEP-2020 to complete their degrees as per their time preferences, providing mobility across various disciplines and HEIs for Degree/ Diploma /PG Diploma/ Certificate programs/Course work for the Ph.D programme.
• To support procedurally the teaching-learning activities to happen in a distributed and blended manner through integration across campuses/universities/autonomous colleges with increased mobility.
• To facilitate lifelong learning amongst all i.e, formal and informal students both from fulltime and part time modes.
• To satisfy the students’ quest for knowledge, freedom to choose and change their academic directions, connect different domains and help them acquire right foundations and building blocks of their dreams.

Benefits:

• It enable the integration of multiple disciplines of higher learning leading to the desired learning outcomes including increased creativity, innovation, higher order thinking and critical analysis.
• It shall provide significant autonomy to the students by providing extensive choice of courses for a programme of study, flexibility in curriculum, novel and engaging course.
• Allows multiple entry, multiple exit for students
• Stores student credit for a minimum shelf life of 7 years
• Transfer credit through a single window after approval of source and destination academic institution
• Only verified academic institutions can upload credits
• Improves transparency and helps to build a more flexible approach to curriculum design and development.

PRELIMS QUESTION

With reference to UGC (Establishment and Operation of Academic Bank of Credits in Higher Education) Regulations, 2021, consider the following statements:

1. Both central and state universities comes under the ambit of ABC framework

2. The validity of credits earned under the ABC scheme will be to a maximum period of 7 years

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

 (a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

                        C

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