IIT Council adopts National Credit Framework to integrate academic education with skilling in India

The IIT Council meeting was held on 18 April 2023 at IIT Bhubaneswar. The Education Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, presided over the meeting, and the directors of all 23 IITs and Chairman UGC MamidalaJagadesh Kumar participated in the deliberations.

Among others, the IIT Council made an important decision on National Credit Framework (NCrF). The UGC chairman presented on NCrF and informed the council that “The National Education Policy 2020 envisions making education more holistic and effective and emphasizes the integration of general (academic) education and vocational education. A national credit accumulation and transfer system is essential to fulfilling this vision. Govt. of India constituted a High-Level Committee with members from UGC, AIaCTE, NCVET, NIOS, CBSE, NCERT, DGT, Ministry of Education, and Ministry of Skill Development.”

He further informed the council that “NCrF is a comprehensive credit framework encompassing elementary, school, higher, and vocational education & training, integrating creolization of learning in various dimensions, i.e., academics, vocational skills and Experiential learning including relevant experience and proficiency/ professional levels acquired.”

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He also pointed out that IITs themselves took a lead role in conducting region-wise awareness workshops were also conducted for teachers and administrators from school education and higher education. 

Five workshops were organized viz. at IIT Delhi on 21.11.2022 for North Zone, at IIT Bhubaneswar on 24.11.2022 for East Zone, at IIT Guwahati on 26.11.2022 for North East Zone, at IIT Bombay on 28.11.2022 for West Zone and at IIT Madras on 29.11.2022  for South Zone.

After the presentation made by Chairman, UGC, the IIT Council decided unanimously to adopt the National Credit Framework and implement it across all IITs. The Chairman UGC said, “Adoption of national credit framework by the IIT council is a great decision since this will provide a better equivalence of credits obtained in general (academic) education, technical education, and skill & vocational education. It will encourage the rest of the higher education system to adopt and implement the national credit framework bringing a unified inclusive meta framework across the country”.

The National Credit Framework (NCrF), is the first of its kind framework in India, which aims at integrating academic education and skilling in India. The NCrF is a unified credit accumulation and transfer framework applicable to school, higher and vocational education.