IITs to adopt national credit accumulation and transfer framework

NEW DELHI: The premier Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) will adopt the National Credit Framework (NCrF) to facilitate earning, transfer and accumulation of credits by students, the IIT Council has decided in its 55th meeting. NCrF, notified last week, is a comprehensive credit framework encompassing elementary, school, higher and vocational education and training.

It also integrates creditisation of learning in various dimensions -- academics, vocational skills and experiential learning -- as well as relevant experience, proficiency and professional levels. In the IIT Council meeting held in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday, UGC Chairman M Jagadesh Kumar made a presentation on NCrF.

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The council decided unanimously to adopt the National Credit Framework and implement it across all IITs. "The National Education Policy 2020 envisions making education more holistic and effective and emphasizes the integration of general (academic) education and vocational education. A national credit accumulation and transfer system is essential to fulfilling this vision.

"The government constituted a high-level committee with members from UGC, AICTE, NCVET, NIOS, CBSE, NCERT, DGT, Ministry of Education, and Ministry of Skill Development," Kumar said at the meeting.

Encompassing school education under a credit framework for the first time, NCrF has divided the learning ecosystem into eight levels, assigning credits based on learning hours.

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"Adoption of national credit framework by the IIT Council is a great decision since this will provide a better equivalence of credits obtained in general (academic) education, technical education, and skill & vocational education. "It will encourage the rest of the higher education system to adopt and implement the national credit framework bringing a unified inclusive meta framework across the country," the UGC chaiperson said.

The IIT Council is apex coordination body of all the 23 premier engineering colleges and looks after the administrative and other key affairs at the IITs. It includes directors and chairpersons of all 23 IITs.