-Mita Mukherjee

Students studying in universities across India will be allowed to study up to 40 percent of their total course through the government’s online platform, Study Webs of Active Learning for Young Aspiring Minds also known as SWAYAM, according to a new regulation of the University Grants Commission (UGC).

Students will have the liberty to study the 40 percent of the course through the online platform from an institution of their choice, the UGC notification said.

UGC the country’s regulator for non-technology undergraduate and postgraduate courses has recently notified the regulations called the UGC Credit Framework for Online Learning Courses through Study Webs of Active Learning for Young Aspiring Minds (Swayam) Regulations,2021 under which every university is expected to recognize the credits, or points earned by students from online courses, which can be up to 40 per cent of the total course.

“The higher education institutions may allow only up to 40 per cent of the total courses, being offered in a particular programme in a semester, through the online credit course, through the SWAYAM platform,” the notification read.

Swayam is the country’s national Massive Open Online Course (MOOCs) platform. The UGC has developed 145 MOOCs and offered 208 MOOCs on Swayam platform.

Under the new rules the Swayam-based online courses will be developed and implemented by a course coordinator. The coordinators can frame different courses on a particular topic and the students will have the freedom to choose a course of her/his choice. The parent university – the institution where the student is enrolled – will have to accept the scores awarded to her/him. The same programme will have to be offered by the parent institution as the student will have to study the remaining 60 per cent of the course there.      

At the end of the semester the examination for the online course may be conducted under the supervision of authorized persons either through online mode or pen and paper.

In the notification the UGC asked institutions to amend their regulations within four weeks: “Every higher education institution shall within four weeks from the date of publication of these regulations in the Official Gazette make the necessary amendments, as may be required, in their statutes, ordinances, rules and regulations to adopt and incorporate the provisions of these regulations for seamless integration through SWAYAM based online courses.”

The UGC in its notification has also asked the universities not to refuse any student for “credit mobility of courses earned through SWAYAM platform.”   

Universities in India had been teaching through the online mode in the pandemic. Many students had complained about not being able to access the online classes because of poor internet connectivity and for not having the devices.

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