On April 12th, UGC or University Grants Commission’s Chief M. Jagdesh Kumar announced good news for all the students in India. Since last July, UGC, an institution that is responsible for maintaining the standards of higher education, has been working on enabling students to pursue dual degrees, or more clearly, two degrees from anywhere across the world.
What are double degrees?
A student can either enrol himself in two separate courses within a university, or he can enrol in two separate universities anywhere in India, or if he wishes to study and enrol himself in a university abroad, that is also possible now. Both of the degrees will be full-time academic courses. The two degrees are conditional on one being a regular mode of learning and the second one being open distance learning (ODL). Also, UGC has made changes to the regulations for Open Distance Learning (ODL) programmes and online courses. Without taking permission from the UGC, any college can now commence distance and online learning for their students. Given, this is only applicable to universities that rank within the top 100 universities in the country in a specific subject. With the Academic Bank of Credit (ABC) scheme, UGC will be adding all the colleges and universities within the country. Right now, with the exception of all the central universities, only a few private, state-owned, and some deemed universities are a part of this scheme.
What is ABC? How is it beneficial to students?
Academic Bank of Credit, or ABC, is a kind of digital bank or storehouse where seven years’ worth of a student’s credit record will be kept. This credit will be earned by the student based on his classwork. If a student, for any personal reason or condition, decides to take a break from the university for a year or two, when he rejoins, his previously earned records will be used and he only has to complete his remaining necessary credits to get his degree. If a student wants to change universities after a year, ABC-registered colleges will also let them do it. If the student wants to move to a new university and go to school there, it’s possible. In this case, the student can use the credits he has already earned from his first university at the second one. This is very convenient. This reform under National Education Policy 2022 will apply in both physical and online modes, or whether it is only for a single or two separate degrees being pursued simultaneously. Currently, this scheme is not active, but the education policy of the future is going to become more flexible. This will be in practise from the upcoming academic year of 2022–23.
Edited By: Khushi Thakur
Published By: Mohammed Anees
