Academic Bank of Credit

In News

Recently, the Prime Minister of India has announced the launch of the Academic Bank of Credit.

Academic Bank of Credit

• It is an academic service mechanism for storing and transferring academic credits of a student. The scheme is in line with the new National Education Policy, 2020.
  • It is envisaged as a digital bank that holds the credit earned by a student in any course. 
• It shall be established, on the lines of the National Academic Depository (NAD), which stores a student’s academic documents and shall have a website providing all details of ABC.
• It will be rolled out for students in over 290 top institutions from the current academic year 2021-22 onwards. 
  • All institutions in the top 100 of the National Institutional Ranking Framework as well as those who have achieved an A grade under the National Assessment and Accreditation Council will be allowed to participate in the credit transfer system.

Key Features

•  Multiple Entry and Exit Options
  • Under the ABC, students will be given multiple entry and exit options. 
    • This enables students to leave a degree or course and get a corresponding certification & rejoin studies after a certain time and be able to start from where they had left.
  • It will enable students to select the best courses or combination of courses to suit their aptitude.
• Flexibility of Curriculum Framework
  • It shall be a national-level facility to promote flexibility of curriculum framework and interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary academic mobility of students across higher education institutions in the country.
•  Bank for Academic Purposes
  • It will be a bank for academic purposes with students as academic account holders to whom it shall provide a variety of services including credit verification, credit accumulation, credit transfer or redemption and authentication of academic awards.

• Organisational Structure
  •  The organisational structure of an academic bank of credits shall be a digital or virtual or online store-house entity of the academic credit data base of a higher education institution with students as its stakeholder.

• Credit Course Document
  • It will not accept any credit course document directly from the students for any course they might be pursuing, but only from higher education institutes, who will have to make deposits in students’ accounts. 
    • A student will get a credit score or marks against the course they have studied. 

(Image Courtesy: TOI)

Significance 

• It will make the education sector more vibrant and accessible.
• It will provide the opportunity for students to tailor their degrees or make specific modifications or specialisations rather than undergoing the rigid, regularly prescribed degree or courses of a single university or autonomous college. 
• It will also permit students to choose a pace for their studies along with the associated logistics and costs.

Source: TH