UGC Notifies ABC Regulations To Facilitate Students’ Mobility Across System

Bhubaneswar: A high-level Committee has prepared a draft University Grants Commission (Establishment and Operationalization of Academic Banks Of Credits(ABC) Scheme In Higher Education ) Regulations 2021.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) had earlier constituted the Committee to develop a detailed scheme along with the implementation strategy on an innovative concept of Academic Banks of Credits (ABC).

Senior officials said that the objective of ABC Regulations is to facilitate students’ mobility across the system.

“Academic Bank of Credits (ABC)” is an academic service mechanism as a digital/virtual/online entity established and managed by MOE/UGC to facilitate students to become its academic account holders and paving the way for seamless student mobility between or within degree-granting Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) through a formal system of credit recognition, credit accumulation, credit transfers and credit redemption to promote distributed and flexible teaching learning.

Academic Flexibility” is the provision for innovative and interchangeable curricular structures to enable creative combinations of Courses/Programmes in Disciplines of study leading to Degree/Diploma/PG Diploma/Certificate of Study offering multiple entry and multiple exit facilities in tune with National Education Policy-2020, while removing the rigid curricular boundaries and creating new possibilities of life-long learning.

ABC, as envisaged in the National Educational Policy-2020, shall be a national-level facility to promote flexibility of curriculum framework and interdisciplinary/multidisciplinary academic mobility of students across the Higher Education Institutions in the country with appropriate “credit transfer” mechanism created through these Regulations.

It shall be a mechanism to facilitate the students to choose their own learning path to attain a Degree/ Diploma/PG-diploma etc, working on the principle of multiple entry-multiple exit as well as anytime, anywhere, and any level learning.

ABC 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 options across a number of higher education disciplines/ institutions.

Objectives of ABC:

-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.

Here’s a brief outline of the regulations:

-They shall apply to all the Universities in India established or incorporated by or under a Central Act, a Provincial Act or a State Act, the Autonomous Colleges and non-autonomous Colleges affiliated to them, and the Deemed-to be Universities declared under Section 3 of the UGC Act, 1956, provided the above higher education institutions are accredited by National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) or similar body(ies) to be established in due course of time, at least at ‘A’ Grade level.

- They shall come into force with effect from the date of their notification in the Gazette of India.

For more details visit the official UGC website; Click here for the official notification