UGC chairman announces commencement of Digital University from July 2023

NEW DELHI: University Grants Commission (UGC) chairman M Jagadesh Kumar announces the commencement of the Digital University. The university will initially offer skill development courses with the aim to provide training to students in job-oriented skills.

The chairman talks about the easy nature of the university, "If a course is of a duration for four years and a student is able to complete it in less time, then the student will be allowed to complete the course in a shorter time period." Additionally, if a student wishes to complete their four-year course in five years, they will be allowed to do so.

The Digital university also allows students to take on two separate degrees simultaneously, and they will also be able to chose a second degree after completion of one from the university. Through the initiative of this Digital University, all Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), National Institutes of Technology (NIT), Central Universities (CU) will be connected. The Academic Bank of Credit, a digital storehouse that contains the information of the credits earned by individual students will be recording learning data of the enrolled students.

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There was a meeting a regarding the establishment of the Digital University in August in which representatives of UGC, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), University of Delhi, IIT Madras and the education minister Dharmendra Pradhan were present.

While presenting the Budget for 2022-23, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said: "A digital university will be set up to provide world-class quality education to the students across the country at their doorsteps. It will be a university that will make various courses and degree studies available to students online. It will work in collaboration with other central universities in the country for the necessary digital infrastructure and training."