Democratising higher education with ABC

Raghavendra P Tiwari

VC, Central University of Punjab

The National Education Policy-2020 (NEP-2020) is committed to creating new opportunities for lifelong learning through a flexible, facilitative, interactive and democratic educational ecosystem, replacing the prevailing restrictive, demotivating and colonising one. The provision of the innovative Academic Bank of Credits (ABC) in NEP-2020, besides the multidisciplinary graduate attributes, learning outcomes, skill-based dynamic and flexible curricular structure, multiple-entry-multiple-exit option and experiential learning pedagogies, will help actualise this commitment.

It is imperative to understand how the ABC will work and democratise our learning system. The ABC will digitally store academic credits earned from select institutions to award a degree/ diploma/PG diploma/certificate upon accumulating credits essential for the completion of these. It will ensure a seamless mobility of learners among various disciplines and institutions for earning credits through courses/combination of courses of their choice for degree/diploma/certificate/course work.

As such, the ABC will facilitate a seamless integration of the campuses and a distributed and blended learning environment by creating opportunities for students’ mobility amongst the institutions.

The ABC will perform the functions of a commercial bank, with the facility for students to hold accounts. The bank will be responsible for the opening, validation and closure of these accounts. It will facilitate verification, accumulation, transfer/redemption of credits and degree authentication for the academic account holders. It will also verify the credits required for the authentication of degrees.

Higher education institutions having Grade A from the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) or the top 100 institutions in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) or institutions with a minimum score of 675 from the National Board of Accreditation (NBA) for at least three programmes shall be eligible for registration in the ABC.

The credits earned by the students may be verified by the bank’s educational transcript. The transcript will showcase specific credits earned by the students and the level of learning outcomes they have achieved in a particular learning module, as well as for the overall course/programme. These transcripts shall be recognised by all institutions that are a part of the consortium on the ABC.

The ABC may also allow non-science students, e.g. from the arts and commerce streams, to take up courses in the science stream after pursuing a bridge course. The ABC will offer multiple-entry-multiple-exit options to the students and ensure that the learning space is available to them for anytime, anywhere, any type, any amount and at any level of learning.

The ABC may also help integrate skills into a choice-based credit system by providing wide-ranging options for choosing courses from several institutions. Through the ABC, students can plan for learning objectives and pursue courses to satisfy their learning needs. Programme- and course-wise graduate attributes/learning outcomes, respectively, will help students select institutions and courses of their choice for earning credits.

The ABC, thus, brings student centricity to the higher education system, and enables students to choose courses and institutions, facilitating learning from a wide range of course coordinators and institutions. For instance, a student can be enrolled for a programme in one institution (parent institution) and simultaneously be enrolled for courses of her/his choice in multiple institutions (sister institutions) for earning credits in the physical and/or online mode.

Thus, the ABC allows students to choose their preferred direction and pace of learning, and multiple-entry-multiple-exit options to complete degrees through informed choices.

Additionally, this ensures an enhanced integration of institutions for conducting academic activities and facilitates lifelong learning opportunities. An added advantage is that the learners have the option to either learn formally and/or informally in full-time and/or part-time modes, and go for any credit course (theory/practical/project etc), excepting the core courses.

Consequently, the ABC will promote the much sought-after quality, flexibility and collaboration, alongside access and equity to improve the efficacy of the higher education system endowed with global competencies and life skills.

The responsibility of implementing the ABC should be entrusted to the General Education Council, the fourth vertical under the Higher Education Commission of India.

The UGC, in the regulation on the ABC, makes it mandatory that the students earn 50 per cent of credits assigned to the programme from the institutions enrolled for the degree/diploma/certificate. This implies that credits assigned for the core courses have to be mandatorily earned from the parent institution. This ceiling may vary in the future upon bridging the digital divide for scaling up and leveraging the benefits of the ABC optimally.

Another catch point is the seven-year validity period for credit redemption. It is essential as the curricular framework and course module will undergo drastic changes after seven years. Regular updation of the curricular framework and course modules is a must and healthy practice for ensuring dynamism in the programme and infusing newer concepts and developments in the domain knowledge.

On the first anniversary of NEP on July 29, 2021, the rollout of the ABC for implementation from the next academic session has paved the way for revolutionising and democratising the higher education system.

Now, it is the responsibility of the higher education institutions to help actualise the ABC to the ground realities to leverage its optimal benefits for the learners. The very idea and concept of educational institutions is founded and grounded on the premise of satisfying the ever-evolving learning needs of the youth and empowering them with the global competencies and skills and enabling them to become socially and economically relevant. This is the only road that will lead us to Atmanirbhar Bharat.

Views are personal