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According to Paulo Freire an educationist of Brazil, the traditional system of education is a Banking system of education as it mechanically deposits lifeless knowledge in students without any creativity, innovation and does not provide required skill to face challenges and find the solutions. To overcome this problem the University Grants Commission proposed the concept of Academic Bank of Credit system which provides autonomy to the student’s democratic participation in higher education system. The concept of Academic Bank of Credit gives learners a way to leadership in the higher education system, and the learners are no longer in the grip of rigidity, forcing them for hectic learning. The idea of Academic Bank of Credit system as proposed in New Education Policy NEP 2020 will catalyze the transformation of society into a skillful creative learning society.

For this paper, author has studied and explored several research papers, research articles, books, reports, and website of different ministries like Ministry of Education, UGC, NAAC and has gone through various aspects of quality assurance measures through accreditation and ranking process. The National Education Policy (NEP2020) emphasizes implementation and adoption of Academic Bank of Credit for the benefit of students. NAAC accreditation manual document is also used in this study.

Origin of Academic Bank of Credit

As a part of various schemes for quality assurance in HEIs, UGC introduces the concept of Academic Bank of Credit. ABC is an academic depository or academic bank account opened for students across the country to provide autonomy to students to earn the credits through any online educational platform as well in an offline mode in one or more HEIs (anytime, anywhere and any level of learning) and to transfer and consolidate such credits. Therefore, ABC scheme provides student mobility across Higher Educational Institutions and credits awarded to a student for one program/course from one institution may be transferred/redeemed by another institution or to another program or course.

Objectives of Academic Bank of Credit

The main objectives of Academic Bank of Credit are

1. To promote student-centric education

2. Focus on learner-friendly teaching approaches

3. Implement an inter-disciplinary approach

4. Enable students to learn at their own pace

5. Encourage students to learn the best course of their interest

6. Focus on learner-friendly teaching approaches

7. Enable the students to learn and practice at their own pace

Functions of Academic Bank of Credit

1. The Academic Bank will be accountable for opening, closing, and validating the academic accounts of students.

2. It will carry out tasks such as credit accumulation, credit verification, credit transfer/redemption of students.

3. This scheme will include all types of courses provided by higher education institutes and is recognized by the University Grants Commission (UGC), whether for post-graduation, diploma, certification courses, etc. The courses include online, and distance mode courses.

4. The validity of these academic credits earned by students will be up to seven years and students can redeem these credits.

5. The credits can be redeemed, and students can seek admission directly in the second year at any university.

6. The validity will be up to seven years; hence, students will have to rejoin within seven years.

7. The Academic Bank of Credits will not accept any credit documents directly by students. However, it will only be accepted if students are enrolled in higher education. The institution has the credit responsibility for the score in students' accounts regularly.

Institutional Need for Academic Bank of Credit

1. Increases the student’s freedom in choosing their courses and academics.

2. Enables the student to drop out in any year and then exchange the credits earned so far with a certificate/diploma if they are eligible.

3. They can redeem the credits and rejoin the same or any other institute in the future and continue their education.

4. The institutes cannot keep the students in the courses against their will to earn money

5. To help the HEIs in Assessment and Accreditation process.

 Salient Features of Academic Bank of Credits

The salient features of Academic Bank of Credits (ABC) include the following aspects to check the credit records of students. The students need to follow the given steps to be a part of the Academic Bank of Credits (ABC).

Opening the ABC Account

The students required to open an Academic Bank Account through national depository like Diglocker with unique username and password. Students can login from anywhere to check their earned credits.

Credits Information

Students must know the credit structure created by the Institution as per the courses and Programs. Every program has specific Program Learning Outcomes, course outcomes with the credit details. When a student study any course and pass the exams, credits will be automatically awarded to them. The details of credit earned will be deposited in the students’ Academic Credit Bank’s account on the digital portal by the concerned institution.

Evaluation and Verification of Credits

Credit deposition, Credit evaluation and credit verification will be done by the Academic Credit Bank at regular intervals. If students want to transfer the credits, they need to apply electronically the Academic Bank of Credit for further process.

Types of Courses

The Academic Bank of Credit accumulates credits of all types of courses of a program such as-

Core Course: It’s a mandatory course of a program which should be studied by all the students

Core Elective: These are the elective courses offered by the main discipline of a program.

Open Elective Course: This is a course elected for an inter-disciplinary exposure of the students.

Skill Enhancement Elective Course: Value-based or skill-based courses. The students can elect this course from a set of courses according to their requirements.

Ability Enhancement Elective Course: These are mandatory courses of all programs. These courses lead to knowledge enhancement.

Based on the above distribution of various courses, the Academic Bank maintains credits of a student for any program. The students could gain credits by pursuing a course or multiple courses from any institution and transfer the credit to the Academic Bank through that institution. Both types of courses Online & offline are included in the ABC scheme. Some of the important online ones include National Schemes such as NPTEL, SWAYAM, V-LAB etc. Thus, students of every possible stream can be benefitted with the ABC of all types of courses including distance learning courses.

Academic Credits

It is a value assigned to a course based on number of theory or practical lectures per weak, for a credential completion of a program. A program is designed in such a way that it includes a group of courses like Core course, Core elective etc. All such courses will be assigned certain credits value which should be allotted for the completion of the course. 

Credit’s Validity

The academic credits earned by students will be valid for seven years. However, the validity of credits is subject to change depending on the type of program, courses, or disciplines.  Even if a student takes a break or is not able to continue their education, he may redeem the earned credits in the future within the time limit of seven years.

Credit Management and Credit redemption

The credits obtained by pursuing the courses and on successful completion of the course from any of the Higher institution or university, the credits will get accumulated to his Academic Credit Bank Account. A student who wishes to do a graduation/certification program is required to accumulate the required credits for all the credential courses certified for that program. When the student reaches the required level of credits for all the courses for a program, he could redeem it to get a degree from the registered University / Institutions from where he has completed a minimum of 50% of the course. Here the student first registers as a learner. The student then accumulates learning experience and credits from the registered institution of his choice. After the accumulation of sufficient credits, the student applies for the recognition of the obtained credits. The student then applies for the intended degree with the registered university where the entire documents are reviewed based on degree requirements and issue the degree if he could fulfill all the requirements.

Significance of the Academic Bank of Credit

1. The student's credits are stored in their accounts, and it will give them freedom concerning their academic career choices.

2. Students have the right to drop out from any college in any semester and then have the facility to exchange the credits earned so far with certification if they are eligible.

3. Enables the students to redeem the credits and rejoin the same institute in the future for continuing their education.

Academic Bank of Credit (ABC) is a student-centric approach in HEIs which focuses on student liberty and flexibility in obtaining graduation. Data were gathered using different research papers, journals, and documents prepared by various HEIs during the survey.

Expected Outcome of the ABC on the Indian Education System

The impact and expected outcome of the introduction and implementation of Academic Bank of Credit in Indian Education system can be assessed on two aspects -student aspect and Institution aspect.

Students Aspect:

1. Academic Bank of Credit system widens the Higher Educational system by making it liberal and tangible.

2. Students can progress and complete a program through the ABC system with part-time enrolment and enjoy the privilege of multiple entry and exit.

3. The students will be progressing through a standardized curriculum as ABC permit inter-collegiate and university transfer for doing a program.

4. The students get an opportunity to experience learning from multiple institutional cultures and standards.

5. Students get the privilege to customize their degree with the courses(subjects) according to their interest and industrial requirement.

6. Courses offered through the online modes like National Schemes – SWAYAM, NPTEL, V-Lab, etc., shall also be considered for credit transfer and credit accumulation. This makes learning more flexible.

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

Institutions Aspect:

1. The implementation of the Academic Bank of Credit puts the institution on a competitive edge in terms of ensuring standard and quality education. It will force the higher education institution to maintain continuous development in terms of quality.

2. HEIs should be subjected to the condition that they are accredited by NAAC or any other accrediting body like Sydney Accord, ABET etc with at least ‘A’ Grade irrespective of the program are only eligible to be registered under ABC scheme.

3. In case their accreditation status goes below ‘A’ Grade at any point in time ABC membership shall cease to exist. However, the students enrolled before the change of accreditation status for a given set of courses could enjoy the facility of transfer of credit for the award of degree.

Academicians, Educationist and University Grants Commission (UGC) expect that implementing this Academic Bank of Credits scheme will positively change and boost the Indian education system. Through ABC system increase in gross enrollment can be achieved which is the major challenge as pointed out in NEP2020.The drop-out ratio will decrease and those students who participate in the project will be beneficial in the long term due to its smooth management of credits.

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