The momentous National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 has student-centricity as its core, for the transformational and incremental changes envisaged accord student learning and developmental outcomes the topmost priority. Multiple initiatives undertaken as part of the implementation of the NEP so far have enlarged the range of options available to the students.

One of the challenges stifling tertiary education hitherto has been the mandatory forfeiture of all the achievements and efforts of the students in case of discontinuation of the degree before the completion of the requisite duration. This issue has been addressed with the implementation of multiple entry and exit for students. In case a student intends, or is forced due to any unforeseen situation, to drop-out of the programme, say after a year or two, the student can carry the past achievements in the form of credits and rejoin the programme at a later period within the stipulated time, and complete the programme. If a student enrols for a four-year Honours Degree programme but leaves the programme after the successful completion of the first year, the student would be awarded a Certificate. Similarly, for successful completion of two years and three years, a Diploma and Degree would be awarded respectively. The earlier situation of completely losing their credits or marks is not the case anymore.

The carrying forward of credits earned till the time of discontinuation and redeeming them later at the time of rejoining the programme is made possible by a mechanism called Academic Bank of Credit, which works similar to a commercial bank. A student is required to open an account on DigiLocker, free of cost, using the Aadhar Number. This student account gets linked to the institution and linked to the programme for which the student is enrolled. Every successful completion of a course in a programme earns credit, which gets accumulated. If a student continues the programmes throughout the duration and the total credit accumulated equals the requisite total credits for the programmes, then the corresponding qualification is awarded. In case the student drops midway, the credits accumulated thus far are retained in the account and can be redeemed whenever the student rejoins the programme and completes it.

Until a short while ago, a section of students who are more industrious had a grouse that despite their willingness and aptitude, the rules did not permit them to pursue an additional programme other than the one being pursued. Recent tweaks in regulations have permitted students to take up an online programme along with another regular programme. This allows students to pursue and complete two degrees simultaneously, as online degrees have the same equivalence and validity as that of a regular degree.

Post NEP, online education has got more fillip, as the UGC allows up to forty percent of the total credits of a programme through online courses offered under SWAYAM / NPETEL platforms. This allows students two benefits: doing any course of choice even if the same is not available in the institutions where the student is enrolled and accessing the course at any time of choice or convenience. In addition, new regulations have also been introduced to encourage eligible universities to offer online programmes.

Further, under the Choice Based Credit System (CBCS), which is in vogue for over two decades, students have some liberty to choose a few courses of their choice under each programme. Post NEP, the UGC has brought in a revised curricular framework to also include skill-based or vocational courses mandatorily in each programme. The emphasis given to making the institutions multidisciplinary automatically expands the horizon of choices for students to choose from.

Using English as the medium of instruction for many programmes has posed and continues to pose challenges to students who have had their schooling in their mother language. Following the mandate of NEP to introduce programmes in the languages, degree programmes are offered in languages other than English by many universities.

Doing higher studies abroad after graduation, especially doctoral programmes, has been a dream choice for some students. One issue for such students was the structure of the undergraduate students, as the Western countries and those that modelled on that have four-year undergraduate programmes even for humanities and social sciences, whereas in India they were three-year programmes. With the introduction of four-year undergraduate programmes, the structure of Bachelor’s programme is now aligned with the global framework, easing access to higher studies abroad for interested students.

There are cases when collaborations result in better services being offered. To enable Indian institutions to associate with globally top-ranked institutions, the UGC has made regulatory changes, whereby the domestic and foreign higher education institutions can now offer a bouquet of programmes together. Further, the best international institutions may also offer their services individually to the students by opening their campuses. While entry into quality international institutions has become possible and easy, the quality of the programmes offered in India has to be of the same quality offered in the main campus of their country.

It is hoped that governments and institutions constantly reform the system to remain student-centric, to remain relevant and meaningful.

Dr.M Saravanan, is specialised in Higher Education and Founder Secretary of the AgaPuram Policy Research Centre, Erode.

Views expressed by the author are personal and need not reflect or represent the views of the AgaPuram Policy Research Centre.