Yes, the courses offered through SWAYAM (Study Webs of Active Learning for Young Aspiring Minds) are recognized by the University Grants Commission (UGC) in India. The UGC has given recognition to SWAYAM as a Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) platform, and the courses offered on this platform are equivalent to regular classroom courses in terms of curriculum, syllabus, and learning outcomes. Students who complete the courses offered through SWAYAM are also eligible for credits, which can be transferred to their regular degree programs. Therefore, SWAYAM courses are recognized by UGC and can be considered as a credible option for students who want to enhance their knowledge and skills in various subjects.
Here are 10 merits of SWAYAM (Study Webs of Active Learning for Young Aspiring Minds):
Free of cost: All the courses offered through SWAYAM are free of cost, which means that students can access quality education without having to pay any fees.
Flexible learning: The platform offers online courses that can be accessed anytime, anywhere, and at the student’s own pace, providing flexibility and convenience to the learners.
High-quality content: The courses offered through SWAYAM are prepared by experienced faculty members and subject matter experts from reputed institutions, ensuring high-quality content and teaching.
Variety of courses: SWAYAM offers a wide range of courses in various subjects, including engineering, management, humanities, social sciences, and many more.
Certification: Students who successfully complete the courses are awarded certificates, which can be useful for their career growth and academic pursuits.
Interactive learning: The platform offers various interactive tools like discussion forums, live chat, and social media integration, which facilitate peer-to-peer learning and collaboration.
Personalized learning: SWAYAM uses advanced technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to personalize the learning experience for each student, based on their learning preferences and performance.
Accessible to all: SWAYAM is designed to be accessible to all learners, including those with disabilities, by providing features like audio and video transcripts, sign language interpretation, and captioning.
Integration with credit systems: The platform is integrated with the credit transfer system, which means that students can transfer the credits earned through SWAYAM to their regular degree programs.
Recognition by UGC: The courses offered through SWAYAM are recognized by the University Grants Commission (UGC), which adds credibility to the platform and the courses offered.
The University Grants Commission (UGC) announced on January 05th 2023 the draft regulations for ‘Setting up and Operation of Campuses of Foreign Higher Educational Institutions in India’. This is in pursuance of the New Educational Policy 2020, which stipulates that, “A legislative framework facilitating such entry will be put in place, and such universities will be given special dispensation regarding regulatory, governance, and content norms on par with other autonomous institutions of India”
Establishing universities and campuses is a challenging proposition, not to mention developing courses, creating research facilities, hiring faculty workers and relocating international workers, among other considerations. On the other hand, despite the glamour of foreign universities, the cost factor will pose a challenge to them. It is also doubtful that the campuses set up by them in India will match the original campus back home in their home country.
Students looking to earn an honours degree in undergraduate courses will have to pursue four-year programmes under new regulations likely to be announced by the University Grants Commission this week, PTI reported.
“Students will be able to get a UG [undergraduate] degree in three years on completion of 120 credits (measured through the number of academic hours) and a UG honours degree in four years on completion of 160 credits,” the news agency quoted from the draft Curriculum and Credit Framework of the University Grants Commission.
At present, students get an honours degree after completing three years of undergraduate programmes. Under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, universities and colleges will offer four-year undergraduate degrees with multiple exit and entry options. Several universities, including DU, and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), have already adopted the programme.
A senior UGC official, requesting anonymity, said, “There will be only one honours degree, that is four-year UG with honours or honours with research. The regulations will be applicable for students who will be enrolled under the new norms from this year onwards.”
Students looking to earn an honours degree in undergraduate courses will have to pursue four-year programmes under new regulations likely to be announced by the University Grants Commission this week, PTI reported.
“Students will be able to get a UG [undergraduate] degree in three years on completion of 120 credits (measured through the number of academic hours) and a UG honours degree in four years on completion of 160 credits,” the news agency quoted from the draft Curriculum and Credit Framework of the University Grants Commission.
At present, students get an honours degree after completing three years of undergraduate programmes. Under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, universities and colleges will offer four-year undergraduate degrees with multiple exit and entry options. Several universities, including DU, and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), have already adopted the programme.
A senior UGC official, requesting anonymity, said, “There will be only one honours degree, that is four-year UG with honours or honours with research. The regulations will be applicable for students who will be enrolled under the new norms from this year onwards.”
University Grants Commission (UGC) came into existence on 2nd December, 1953. It became a statutory body by an Act of Parliament in 1956, for the coordination, determination and maintenance of standards of teaching, examination and research in university education.
Recently, the UGC has released Academic Collaboration between Indian and Foreign Higher Education Institutions to offer Joint Degree, Dual Degree, and Twinning Programmes Regulations, 2022.
Under these regulations collaborating institutes will be allowed to offer three kinds of programmes — twinning, joint degrees and dual degrees.
Dual Degree Programmes: The approved amendments include a provision for “dualdegree programmes” — both the Indian and foreign institutions will give separate and simultaneous degrees for a course of the same discipline, and at the same level.
Easing Regulation: Indian universities that meet a minimum academic standard will not need UGC’s permission to offer such programmes.
Joint Degrees: Students enrolling for these programmes will have to go abroad to earn credits, but they will not have to seek admission separately while doing so.
In the draft amendments, foreign partner institutions are required to be among the world’s top 1,000 in global rankings.
Dual Degrees: For dual degrees, students will have to complete at least 30% of their course credit at the foreign institution.
The degrees awarded by both the Indian and foreign institutions will indicate the credits earned at the respective institutions.
At the end of the course, the student will be awarded two degrees, separately and simultaneously, by the Indian and foreign institution.
Twinning Arrangement: A student can study a programme partly in India and partly in a foreign university, but the diploma or degree will be awarded just by the Indian university.
Students will have to complete up to 30% of the course’s credits at the foreign institution by means of an exchange programme.
Exception: The new regulations are not applicable to programmes offered online and in the open and distance learning mode.
Significance: The new regulation will prompt Indian students to get a foreign degree and enhance their employability in the international market.
Since ancient times to the modern world, the Higher Education System has always been remarkable in our country, India. From ancient Bharat to modern India, higher education has always occupied a place of prominence in Indian history. In ancient times, Nalanda, Taxila and Vikramsila universities were renowned seats of higher learning, attracting students not only from all over the country but from far off countries like Korea, China, Burma, Sri Lanka, Tibet and Nepal. Today, India manages one of the largest higher education systems in the world.
UGC
The University Grants Commission of India (UGC India) is a statutory body set up by the Government of India in accordance to the UGC Act 1956 under the Ministry of Education, and is charged with coordination, determination and maintenance of standards of higher education. It provides recognition to universities in India, and disbursements of funds to such recognized universities and colleges. The headquarters are in New Delhi, and it has six regional centers in Pune, Bhopal, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Guwahati and Bangalore. A proposal to replace it with another new regulatory body called HECI is under consideration by the Government of India. The UGC provides doctoral scholarships to all those who clear JRF in the National Eligibility Test. On an average, each year more than a $100 million is spent on doctoral and post-doctoral fellowships by the commission.
University grant commission logo
Basic information
Established
28 December 1953 First
executive
shanti Swaroop bhatnagar
Headquarter
new Delhi
Chairman
Dp Singh
Department
department of higher education, ministry of education
Sector
higher education
History
The present system of higher education dates back to Mountstuart Elphinstone`s minutes of 1823, which stressed on the need for establishing schools for teaching English and the European sciences. Later, Lord Macaulay, in his minutes of 1835, advocated “efforts to make natives of the country thoroughly good English scholars”. Sir Charles Wood`s Dispatch of 1854, famously known as the ` Magna Carta of English Education in India`, recommended creating a properly articulated scheme of education from the primary school to the university. It sought to encourage indigenous education and planned the formulation of a coherent policy of education. Subsequently, the universities of Calcutta, Bombay (now Mumbai) and Madras were set up in 1857, followed by the university of Allahabad in 1887. The Inter-University Board (later known as the Association of Indian Universities) was established in 1925 to promote university activities, by sharing information and cooperation in the field of education, culture, sports and allied areas.
The first attempt to formulate a national system of education in India came In 1944, with the Report of the Central Advisory Board of Education on Post War Educational Development in India, also known as the Sergeant Report. It recommended the formation of a University Grants Committee, which was formed in 1945 to oversee the work of the three Central Universities of Aligarh, Banaras and Delhi. In 1947, the Committee was entrusted with the responsibility of dealing with all the then existing Universities.
Soon after Independence, the University Education Commission was set up in 1948 under the Chairmanship of Dr. S Radhakrishnan “to report on Indian university education and suggest improvements and extensions that might be desirable to suit the present and future needs and aspirations of the country”. It recommended that the University Grant Committee be reconstituted on the general model of the University Grants Commission of the United Kingdom with a full-time Chairman and other members to be appointed from amongst educationists of repute. In 1952, the Union Government decided that all cases pertaining to the allocation of grants-in-aid from public funds to the Central Universities and other Universities and Institutions of higher learning might be referred to the University Grants Commission. Consequently, the University Grants Commission (UGC) was formally inaugurated by late Shri Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, the then Minister of Education, Natural Resources and Scientific Research on 28 December 1953.
The UGC, however, was formally established only in November 1956 as a statutory body of the Government of India through an Act of Parliament for the coordination, determination and maintenance of standards of university education in India. In order to ensure effective region-wise coverage throughout the country, the UGC has decentralized its operations by setting up six regional centers at Pune, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Bhopal, Guwahati and Bangalore. The head office of the UGC is located at Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg in New Delhi, with two additional bureaus operating from 35, Feroze Shah Road and the South Campus of University of Delhi as well.
In 1994 and 1995 the UGC decentralized its operations by setting up six regional centres at Pune, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Bhopal, Guwahati and Bangalore. The head office of the UGC is located at Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg in New Delhi, with two additional bureaus operating from 35, Feroze Shah Road and the South Campus of University of Delhi as well.
In December 2015 the Indian government set a National Institutional of Ranking Framework under UGC which will rank all educational institutes by April 2016.
Role
The main aim & role of UGC in higher education is to provide funds to universities and coordinate, determine & maintain the ethics in institutions of higher education. The commission upholds the interpretation among the universities, government, and the community. UGC has also set some standards for the universities for being UGC Approved Universities. With the growth of higher education in India, many top, medium, and small universities are being established day by day. Among these universities, there are many universities that are fake and not fit as per the UGC standards. Therefore, the University Grants Commission has released the list of Fake Universities in India to help the students to recognize these rejected universities
Functions
It provides funds and it also arranges for the coordination and maintenance of the universities in India. The UGC controls the following in India:
1.Maintaining the standard of research, teaching and examination in the university maintaining standards of teaching, examination and research in universities & Framing regulations on minimum standards of education.
2.It is a link between the union government and the institutes of higher education system.
3. It also advises the government about the steps to be taken in order to improve the education system.
4.Allocates grants to the universities and colleges out of its own funds for their development or other general purpose.Advises the central and state government on disbursing grants to the universities out of the Consolidated Fund of India. Advises any authority on the establishment of new university or on the proposal seeking expansion of any university.
5.Collects information on university education in India and in other countries.
6.Seeks information from the universities from time to time. The information may range from the financial position of the university, their various branches of learning to the rules and regulations followed in a particular university.
Imparts education to the students in various streams through its Country wide classroom teachings and a four-year old 24 hours educational channel ‘Vyas’.
8.Conducts National Eligibility Test (NET) through its National Educational Testing Bureau in a bid to determine eligibility for lectureship. It also awards Junior Research Fellowship (JRF), which has been set as the minimum standards for Indian nationals to enter teaching profession and research. Humanities (including languages), Forensic Science, Computer Science, Social Sciences, Environmental Sciences, and Applications and Electronic Science are the subjects in which a student can appear for a JRF.
9.The University Grants Commission has recently launched an ‘e-scripting’ course in television for all those students who want to make a career in broadcast media. The course is being run by its Consortium of Educational Communication, an Inter University Centre of the UGC on electronic media.
10.Monitoring developments in the field of collegiate and university education; disbursing grants to the universities and colleges.
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