CHENNAI: The University Grants Commission (UGC) has asked all the higher educational institutions in Tamil Nadu to immediately implement the Academic Bank of Credits (ABC) for the students, and to provide clarity regarding its implementation at the training session to be hosted by the commission on Thursday. This has put the vice chancellors of the universities in a quandary, as they are confused whether to attend it or not.
The ABC, which is part of the National Education Policy (NEP), will provide a variety of services including credit verification, credit accumulation, credit redemption, and authentication of academic awards. To ensure effective implementation of the ABC, UGC Chairman M Jagadesh Kumar will discuss its operationalisation with the universities on December 29 at 10 am through UGC’s social media handle.
The national e-governance division of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology will also share the end-to-end flow of the ABC and guide on the subject.
However, as the state universities have been directed not to follow anything related to NEP, the vice chancellors don’t want to attend the event and sour their relationship with the state government. But at the same time, they are also worried that, if they have to implement it later, they will have to face difficulties as they would know nothing about the technicalities of ABC.
“The tussle over NEP between the state and the centre is taking a toll on the universities. It has really become difficult now to handle the situation as every day UGC sends a new circular and ignoring all those is certainly not wise,” said a senior administrative official of a state university.While few others feel ABC is very crucial as UGC plans to implement it on a national basis and if they don’t adapt to it timely, they will lag behind other univeristies across the country.