RONO HILLS, 29 Dec: With the University Grants Commission (UGC) notifying the academic bank credit (ABC) system for all the students pursuing their degrees in various universities, autonomous colleges and institutions of national importance in India, Rajiv Gandhi University (RGU) here is all set to implement it.
“The initiative has the potential to internationalise India’s higher education system. The regulation offers major promises, such as freedom and flexibility in the university degree-granting system; standardisation within the Indian higher education system; and robust integration of the Indian higher education system,” the university informed in a release.
Attending a meeting with UGC Chairman Prof Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar through videoconference, RGU Vice Chancellor Prof Saket Kushwaha said that “the university will constitute a task force for this, which will be headed by a senior level officer of the university, with members drawn from amongst the officers and faculty members who have the experience of dealing with admission, registration and examination matters.”
The VC opined that the ABC “will be a game-chan-ger in transforming Indian education to a great extent.”
Inter-disciplinary and multidisciplinary approach is the need of the hour. With the ABC, RGU will be able to help students learn subjects of their choice and become skill-oriented graduates, the release said.
On the sideline of the meeting, Prof Tomo Riba from the geography department, who is also RGU’s VC in-charge, said that “RGU will start the assigned works on priority basis,” and opined that “the UGC’s ABC will help the university to manage and check the credits earned by students, with the objectives to promote student-centric education; to focus on learner-friendly teaching approaches; to implement an interdisciplinary approach to allow students to learn the best courses of their interest; and to enable students to learn at their own pace.”
RGU Controller of Examinations Dr Bijay Raji said that the academic bank would be accountable for opening, closing and validating the academic accounts of the students. “It will carry out tasks such as credit accumulation, credit verification, and credit transfer or credit redemption of students,” he said.
The courses include online and distance mode courses offered by the government and the institutes. The validity of these academic credits earned by the students will be up to seven years, and students can redeem these credits. The credits can be redeemed and students can seek admission directly in the second year at any university. The validity will be up to seven years; hence, students will have to rejoin within seven years, the release said.
RGU Engineering Technology Dean Prof Utpal Bhattacharjee emphasised that “the creation of a centralised ABC platform and the provision to exit at various stages of an academic programme and re-enter through multiple admission paths were both key proposals of the National Education Policy (NEP)-2020 that aimed at student mobility and credit accumulation, transfer and redemption.”
RGU Joint Registrar (Academic) Dr David Pertin said that the ABC “is a virtual digital storehouse that contains the information of the credits earned by individual students throughout their learning journey. It will enable students to open their accounts and give multiple options for entering and leaving colleges or universities. There will be ‘multiple exit’ and ‘multiple entry’ points during the higher education tenure, and credits will be transferred through the ABC seamlessly.”
“ABC can be considered as an authentic reference to check the credit record of any student at any given point in time. Thus, the concept of ABC is fuel to boost the efficiency of faculty and help students embrace a multidisciplinary educational approach. The idea is to make students skilful professionals and help their overall growth,” he said, and further informed that “the ABC shall work with the opening of an ABC account, followed by crediting of the information as per courses, and then the evaluation and verification of credits earned will follow at regular intervals and will help in regulating the processes with ultimate authenticity.”
Dr Pertin added that “the scheme of the courses shall be offered in both online and offline mode through various national schemes such as the NPTEL, SWAYAM, V-LAB, etc, with an intent to cover almost all types of courses, including distance learning courses, to help students of every possible stream.”
RGU Joint Registrar (Examinations) Dr Nani Tamang Jose said that “the importance of ABC is reflected in the fact that it will increase the students’ freedom in choosing their courses and academics and enable the students to drop out in any year and then exchange the credits earned so far with a certificate/diploma if they are eligible.”
“They can redeem the credits and rejoin the same or any other institute in the future and continue their education. The institutes cannot keep the students in the courses against the will of a student. The ABC will give an open choice to the student, empowering them to develop their full potential according to their interests and potential, but it is the choice of which credits have been earned and their quality that will matter and not the number of credits earned,” he said.
