In order to democratise education further and to make it more accessible, especially for people living in the remote parts of the country, the University Grants Commission (UGC) will now offer the e-content of over 23000 educational courses online for free. The courses will be launched on the portal today, Friday, 29th July, 2022, in order to commemorate the second anniversary of the National Education Policy (NEO), 2020.
Among the courses offered are Artificial Intelligence, Early Childhood Care, Structure and Function of Biomolecules, etc. The UGC is working in collaboration with the Ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY) in order to consolidate resources for the courses with over 7.5 Lakh Common Services Centre (CSC) and Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) Centres to offer these courses in the upcoming academic session.
The courses offered include, 137 SWAYAM MOOC Courses in emerging areas and 25 non-engineering SWAYAM courses, and 23000 postgraduate courses. As of now, the students may use these courses to enhance their understanding of the courses they take in colleges or they take up to 40% of their credits of the courses and store them in the Academic Bank of Credit (ABC).
Mr. M Jagadeesh Kumar, the chairperson of the UGC, said, “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.”