Banking on the power of credit

The notion of higher education, as far as India is concerned, is a subject that until now, did not leave much room to manoeuvre. An undergraduate or postgraduate degree followed a highly linear progression, with the curriculum containing a slew of mandatory subjects, and one or two electives thrown in, to offer students the illusion of choice. And unlike their counterparts in many first-world nations, students in the country, more often than not, do not have the luxury of a gap year to chill without a hiccup in their CVs. That scenario is now set to change as under the National Education Policy 2020, which has been drafted keeping student-friendly protocols in mind, a proposal for an Academic Bank of Credit (ABC) for students has been introduced. This initiative aims to offer students an unprecedented level of flexibility when it comes to choosing courses, or a combination of courses, best suited to their intellectual and long-term vocational requirements. As per the draft rules prepared by the University Grants Commission (UGC), the ABC will be rolled out in a phased manner, starting with the 2021-22 academic year. Encouragingly, Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) in Tamil Nadu seem to have embraced the concept and will soon begin to operationalise this system here. This modelling of the system can be compared to that of a bank account, where students can accumulate, transfer and redeem academic credits, as per their convenience. Allowing students to opt for a tailor-made approach to higher learning, while granting them seamless mobility between degree-granting institutions, could alter the entire education ecosystem of India, in radical ways. Stakeholders in the academic space believe it’s an idea whose time has come, as it not only will liberalise learning, in a true sense of the word, but also promote distributed, flexible learning. The system will also incorporate arrangements to facilitate multiple entries and exits to and from courses. The timing of introducing the ABC system to Indian universities is quite telling. It was just a year ago that the entire education system of the nation had come to a grinding halt, owing to the pandemic-induced lockdown. While veterans in the education space remarked that the time was ripe to reimagine our pedagogy from the ground-up, the pandemic has also offered many students an option to reconsider their higher education plans. The top draw of prestigious institutions in the developed world had been the broad variety of subjects that one could pick from, mixing and matching from a list of subjects to the flexibility offered to complete these courses in a period convenient to the student. Interestingly, the ABC system also permits students from non-science streams, such as commerce and arts to opt for courses specific to the science stream, upon the completion of a bridge course or a programme. This option in many ways is a godsend of sorts for students, who might have displayed proficiency in one or the other science subject during their school years, say biology, but would have faltered in mathematics or for science students who consider a shift towards fine arts in their college years. Last year, President Ram Nath Kovind had highlighted that one of the targets set by NEP 2020 is to amp up the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education to 50% by 2035, from the present 25.4%. He had also remarked that higher education in India must reflect concern for gender justice about enrolment and contribution, especially in the technical institutions’ space. If implemented in letter and spirit, this credit bank could play a significant role in reversing the institutional brain drain that has become the hallmark of India.