Implement 'Academic Bank of Credits' for all students in TN: UGC to HEIs

CHENNAI: The University of Grants Commission (UGC) has asked all the Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) in Tamil Nadu to immediately implement the Academic Bank of Credits (ABC) for the students.

The ABC, which is a part of the National Education Policy (NEP), will provide a variety of services which include credit verification, credit accumulation, credit redemption, and authentication of academic awards.

UGC secretary Rajnish Jain, in his notification to all the vice-chancellors of the universities in the state and principals of all colleges, said that NEP envisions the establishment of ABC, a national-level facility which will be a bank for academic purposes with students as academic account holders.

He said for effective implementation of the student-centric facility it was essential that all universities with the approval from their statutory authorities of extant ordinances, register with the ABC and monitor the development of operationalisation of the program.

"Further it will encourage and make it possible for all students to open an academic bank account with ABC to commute credits to award any degree or diploma or certificate", he added.

The UGC secretary also informed that the commission's chairman M Jagadesh Kumar will discuss the operationalisation of the ABC at the universities on December 29, 2022, at 10 am.

Accordingly, the national e-governance division of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology will share the end-to-end flow of the ABC and guide on the subject.

He said that the program will be webcast live on the social media handles of UGC. Other benefits of ABC, which enable students' mobility, give academic flexibility and allows students to choose their own learning path.

On the scheme implementation, UGC said participating HEIs have to amend their rules so that all institutions have a common credit awarding system.

The credits will have to be deposited in students' academic accounts and would have a fully defined shelf life of at least up to five years from the date of earning the credits, it added.