Students can now get 40% of university credits from e-courses

About the news:

The government has recently announced that from the 2021-22 academic session, students of 149 universities would be allowed to earn up to 40% of their required credits from among the over 800 online courses available on the Swayam platform.

About the announcement

• Students of 149 universities can now get 40% of university credits from e-courses available on the Swayam platform.
• The 149 universities include central universities like Jamia Millia Islamia, state universities like National Law University, Delhi and over 75 private and deemed universities.
• Once the student fulfils the total credits required, he or she will be granted the degree.
• Apart from this, the academic bank of credit (ABC) would also become functional from the forthcoming academic session. The ABC will be a repository of the credits earned by a student.

About the SWAYAM Courses:

• There are 846 online courses that will be offered by SWAYAM from the forthcoming semester.
• The courses are divided into seven categories
  1. Architecture and planning,
  2. Engineering and technology,
  3. humanities and arts,
  4. Law
  5. Management and commerce,
  6. Mathematics and sciences
  7. NPTEL domain (National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning)
• Each category is further divided into small course modules, from which a student can choose and register and learn online.
• The National Testing Agency conducts exams twice a year at the end of each semester.

The benefit of the credit transfer:

• This would give the much-needed flexibility to students as envisaged in the National Education Policy 2020.
• So far, a student used to get the experience of one university. But from now on, a student can learn multiple online courses under different universities.
• This will also boost the skill set among students as a university may not offer a particular skill that another might have.