The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) overwhelmingly accepted the National Credit Framework (NCrF) to facilitate credit earning, transfer, and accumulation by students across all IITs. The decision was made at the 55th IIT Council meeting on April 18, during which the UGC Chairman delivered the NCrF.

The NCrF, a comprehensive framework embracing primary, secondary, postsecondary, and vocational education and training, incorporates creditisation of learning across several dimensions such as academics, occupational skills, and experiential learning. With the implementation of NCrF, all 23 IITs will be able to provide students the opportunity to earn credits that can be transferred and accumulated for future academic pursuits.

The UGC Chairman praised the decision, saying, “Adoption of national credit framework by the IIT Council is a great decision because this will provide a better equivalence of credits obtained in general (academic) education, technical education, and skill & vocational education.” It will inspire the remainder of the higher education system to adopt and apply the national credit framework, resulting in a uniform inclusive meta framework throughout the country.”

Aside from adopting NCrF, the IIT Council examined student suicides and emphasised the significance of a solid grievance redressal mechanism, increased psychological counselling, reduced pressure, and emphasising the importance of lessening students’ fear of failure or rejection.

The IIT Council’s unanimous adoption of NCrF is a key step towards establishing a more student-centric education system in India, where students can harness their learning across schools and domains. The IITs have provided an example for other higher education institutions to follow and apply the national credit system, resulting in a uniform and inclusive meta framework for education across the country.

India’s education ministry has reported that the number of students travelling overseas for higher studies has experienced an increase of 68% between 2021 and 2022. Specifically, in 2022, 750,365 students left the country for further studies, compared to 444,553 in 2021. Over the last few years, a total of 30 lakh Indians have gone abroad for higher studies, which is a substantial sum of money that could have been spent on India’s own education budget.

In response, Subhash Sarkar, the junior education minister, stated that the government has no plans to establish an “international university of the higher standard” in order to save these funds. Due to stakeholders’ requests, the University Grants Commission has extended the deadline for the draft regulations for setting up and operating the campuses of foreign higher educational institutions in India.

Delhi Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal, has expressed his disappointment at the number of Indians travelling overseas for education, emphasizing that India should have developed the capacity to attract students from other countries