UGC to tweak draft norms on learning outcomes to sync it with NHEQF

UGC chairperson Prof M Jagadesh Kumar told The Indian Express on Sunday that the commission decided to revise the draft regulations, which were put out in public domain in January, to ensure parity with guidelines that govern technical education in the country.

Put simply, the National Higher Education Qualifications Framework (NHEQF), which is being revised, defines what a learner is expected to know upon completion of a course, ranging from certificate programmes to PhDs.

It also sets the minimum credits that a student needs to earn in order to clear a course and move to the next level. The draft NHEQF initially arranged the qualifications at a scale of five to 10. “However, the above is not in tune with the NSQF in which the levels are organised from 4.5 to 8. Since UGC’s draft NHEQF has levels from 5 to 10 as explained above, it will create operational problems for the vertical and horizontal mobility of learning by prescribing the entry requirement for each qualification, prerequisites for lateral entry, and validation of prior learning outcomes achieved,” Prof Kumar said.

Hence, the NHEQF will also adopt the 4.5 to 8 scale, he said. The UGC will hold a series of meetings with the heads of universities from May 25 to communicate the plan to revise the draft, Prof Kumar added.

The revised scale has been prepared in line with the proposed four-year undergraduate programme structure, which will give multiple entry and exit options to students, who can obtain anything between a certificate and a degree with research based on the number of semesters cleared by them.