The Draft of much-awaited ‘New Education Policy’ of the Government of India was presented in front of the country in the year 2020 which has been implemented in the whole country from the academic session 2022. Its aim is to prepare for the future of this country with the rapid changes taking place in the world nowadays. It is noteworthy that through this, not only the nature and way of the traditional curriculum was changed, but keeping the all-round development of the students at the center, many new dimensions were also enshrined in the new education policy.

On the occasion of the 2nd anniversary of the NEP, the university grants commission introduced an online portal with the aim of easier access to education for all and bridging the digital divide and enhance accessibility of higher education in remote parts of the country. The portal will be helpful in providing digital access and make e-governance services available to all the students especially those who are living in the rural India at their doorstep.

The UGC has tied up with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology  to integrate the e-resources with their over 7.5 lakh Common Service Centres (CSC) and Special Purpose Vehicle Centres to offer Over 23,000 higher education courses, including programmes on Artificial Intelligence, cyber security and early childhood care. these courses will be available from the forthcoming academic session of 2022-23. “As part of its efforts in making higher education accessible to all, the UGC has been constantly working in making digital resources available to students in English as well as regional languages,” UGC Chairman M Jagadesh Kumar said.

The courses include 23,000 postgraduate courses, 137 SWAYAM MOOC courses in emerging areas and 25 non-engineering SWAYAM courses. There are no charges for accessing these on the UGC portal. These can be accessed for free on the UGC platform.

Students can use these e-resources to strengthen their understanding of their subjects they are learning in their colleges or take upto 40% credit of their courses and store them in the Academic Bank of Credit (ABC). These PG courses are in either text or video format like offered by National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL). “Degrees will be offered only when the Digital University will be in place. Right now students can earn 40% of their course credits from these courses,” said M Jagadesh Kumar, chairperson, UGC.