KSOU takes steps to fulfil National Education Policy 2020 norms

KSOU had adopted National Academic Depository (NAD), for issuing degree certificates, in 2018 itself

The Mysuru-based Karnataka State Open University (KSOU) is taking steps to gradually fulfil the norms of National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and has completed the uploading of the credits of its 43,716 students, enrolled in the July and January cycles of the academic year 2021-22 and July cycle of 2022-23, on Academic Bank of Credits (ABC).

KSOU, the open and distance learning institution of Karnataka state government, had adopted National Academic Depository (NAD), for issuing degree certificates, in 2018 itself. It has to be noted that NAD is a Central government initiative, for digitally holding certificates from 10th standard, in a central database. Besides eradicating fake and duplicate degree certificates, NAD will reduce the hassles of accessing and verifying academic credentials of students, domestic or foreign universities, human resource (HR) consultants and employers.

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ABC, under the Union Ministry of Education, has been established on the lines of NAD, in the sense that NAD is the backbone of ABC, where the students’ academic data are held and academic awards are stored (i.e., a storehouse of academic awards).

KSOU Registrar K L N Murthy said, “ABC, an initiative of the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and Union Ministry of Education (MoE), enables the students to register or commence credit transfer.”

“The final outcomes of credit redemption and issuance of certificates, as well as the compilation of award records, are administered by academic institutions (AI) or higher education institutions (HEI) via the NAD platform. Thus, being the owner of academic awards, AIs must mandatorily register themselves under ABC, via the NAD, to upload credits of its students, as per University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines,” Murthy said.

Chairman of department of Ancient History and Archeology, KSOU, Shalvapille Iyengar, also ABC and NAD coordinator for KSOU, said, “ABC enables students mobility across HEIs. It helps in seamless integration of skills and experiences into a credit-based system. Credits awarded to a student for one programme from an institution may be transferred or redeemed by another institution, upon student’s consent. Thus, credit transfer is the key for successful study mobility.”

“As ABC is an online centralised system, it enables credit accumulation and redemption. It is a credit audit trail management system that facilitates credit accounting. ABC enables student mobility providing academic flexibility. It allows student to choose their own learning path and facilitates recognised learning achievements. The key features of ABC are: It allows multiple entry and multiple exit options. It facilitates anytime anywhere learning. Allows student to study at their own pace and promotes transparency,” Iyengar said.

Iyengar said, “Earlier, the UGC had directed the KSOU, to upload the credits, but as KSOU is a huge institution, with thousands of students, we could not achieve it.”

“Finally, the UGC enabled bulk uploading of the credits, as the admission process itself is digitised in KSOU, and gave an ultimatum on January 12, that all credits should be uploaded by January 15. As January 15 was a holiday, on account of Sunday and also Marakra Sankranthi, we completed the process on January 14 itself. On January 14, there was a meeting of Karnataka State Higher Education Council and we could communicate about this, to the higher authorities, on the same day. Now on, it will be done as and when a student is admitted,” he said.