New Delhi: The India Edtech Consortium (IEC), the self-regulatory body for edtech platforms, has welcomed the Education Ministry’s move to set up a National Digital University calling it India’s next UPI moment.
The body, created under the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), said in a statement Friday: “NDU could be India’s next UPI moment making quality education more accessible and flexible and will continue to throttle Edtechs’ mission of making India a Vishwa guru.”
It further said: “The initiative has started making waves for its proposed framework which will benefit Indian students and has been receiving encouraging reactions from industry stakeholders”.
The consortium believes the move will bolster the growth and adoption of online higher education across Indian households and will co-exist with Indian edtechs to further future-proof Indian youth.
Chairman of the consortium and the Managing Director of UpGrad, Mayank Kumar, said the NDU could be a catalyst in making online higher education a non-metro phenomenon and would also encourage wider participation by top Indian universities. These institutes will now be able to reach out to more students with their quality products for scaling the impact, he said.
Kumar sees immense benefit for working professionals and freshers as they can now “pursue short-term or skill-based courses more confidently from one university and utilise the accumulated credits for completing their higher education programs with another, without having to worry about the career backlog”.
About NDU
The National Digital University, a first of its kind initiative by the Ministry of Education, was announced in the 2022-23 budget session. The university, all set to launch this year, is the government’s solution to seat shortage in higher education institutions.
It will be hosted by the SWAYAM platform and IT and administrative services will be provided through the government’s Samarth portal. NDU aims to give students the liberty to design their own courses.
Students can accumulate their credits from different higher education institutes (HEIs) and apply for a degree from the NDU or complete 50% of credits from one HEI and the rest from another.
The NDU will foster key learning benefits like no capping on the number of seats or admissions and will allow school pass-outs and working professionals to pursue multi-disciplinary careers for enhanced professional growth.
It will also accelerate the popularity of the NEP-led Academic Bank of Credits (ABC) that allows students to utilise accrued credits and subsequently transfer them as they go in for further skilling or completing their higher education programs.
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