AICTE asks institutions to offer 20% courses online, ease credit transfer

Abhay Anand | May 18, 2020 | 10:01 AM IST

NEW DELHI: Following the announcement by the Union finance minister on more focus on online education, the technical education regulator, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has asked institutions to allow credit transfer to students for online courses and offer courses through SWAYAM.

The AICTE has asked higher education institutions to facilitate credit transfer of up to 20 percent in every semester from online courses offered by SWAYAM platform. The AICTE Chairman in his letter writes: “AICTE requests VCs of all universities/affiliating universities and directors/principals of autonomous colleges to facilitate students and permit credit transfer to the extent of 20 per cent in every semester through the online courses provided through SWAYAM platform.”

#AICTE requests VCs of all Universities/Affiliating Universities & Directors/Principals of Autonomous colleges to facilitate students & permit credit transfer to extent of 20% in every sem through #online courses provided via @SWAYAMMHRD platform.

Details:https://t.co/AQWXbLXH5Y pic.twitter.com/o4RvgGq9jm
— AICTE (@AICTE_INDIA) May 17, 2020

Yesterday, during her press conference finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the government is soon going to launch PM e-Vidya Programme for multi-mode access to digital online education.

The AICTE earlier in 2016 issued guidelines to higher education institutions to offer online courses through SWAYAM, also defining 20 per cent credit transfer for online courses under SWAYAM Platform.

As per the AICTE letter, “It was mandated that 20 per cent of the courses can be taken online by the students and Universities were required to recognize the credits of those 20 per cent courses.”

The council has also developed a curriculum for technical programmes and has also done the job of mapping of SWAYAM courses with undergraduate (UG) courses suggested in AICTE's model curriculum. “In other words, AICTE indicated equivalence of AICTE courses with the online courses which can be taken on SWAYAM.”