Academic Bank Paves Way for Liberal, Curated Degree

The Academic Bank of Credit proposed in the National Education Policy 2020 will serve as a special purpose vehicle to be set up either under the education ministry or UGC. It will offer students the flexibility to promote liberal education according to the drafts ruled by the UGC.

The bank will provide students with an opportunity to curate a single degree by studying different subjects. It will hold academic records of students and will offer facilities to redeem and curate courses/degrees. Every single course done by a learner and the credit earned from it will be deposited in ABC. The credits earned from each course can be utilized while curating a degree. However, once the credits are used for a full degree kit, the same cannot be used for another degree/ certificate.

This will allow students the flexibility to study at their own pace by joining a course, accumulate credits, and continuing from where they left. ABC is a bank with academic purposes modeled on the commercial bank. Students will be the account holders and ABC will provide them with multiple services such as credit verification, credit accumulation, credit transfer or redemption, and degree authentication.

According to the draft rules, the bank will also facilitate the credit recognition and redemption process for students who may choose 100% of the courses, without falling in a particular subject domain, but fulfil the total credit requirements for the UG 9undergraduate) degree to be awarded by a university. Such UGC degree may be specified as a Bachelor of Liberal Education

Also Read: UGC Academic Credit Bank Details

Also, the credits earned under the ABC scheme are flexibly kept for long duration in the interest of students. The validity of such credits will be 7 years or as specified separately for subject disciplines to allow the redemption of credits after the date of earning such credits