The India Edtech Consortium (IEC), a self-regulatory body created under the aegis of the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), in a statement, welcomed the formation of the National Digital University (NDU) by the government of India this year under the National Education Policy (NEP 2020). The initiative has started making waves for its proposed framework which will benefit Indian students and has been receiving encouraging reactions from industry stakeholders, the IEC said in the statement.
Commenting on the development, Mr. Mayank Kumar, Chairman of the IEC, said, “It will bolster the growth and adoption of online higher education across Indian households and will co-exist with Indian edtechs to further future-proof our youth.”
The yet-to-arrive NDU will foster key learning benefits like no capping on the number of seats or admissions and will allow school pass-outs and working professionals to pursue multi-disciplinary careers for enhanced professional growth. It will also accelerate the popularity of the NEP-led Academic Bank of Credits (ABC) that allows students to utilize accrued credits and subsequently transfer them as they go in for further skilling or completing their higher education programs.
“The NDU is definitely a value-add and is aptly timed to enhance India’s learning curve. Indian Edtechs has built a strong digital infrastructure in the past years across metros and drove accessibility of learning, especially amid testing times of the pandemic. With the NDU shaping up, we can expect it to be the catalyst in making online higher education a non-metro phenomenon and will also encourage wider participation by top Indian universities who will now be able to reach out to more students with their quality products for scaling the impact. Working professionals and freshers will also be able to pursue short-term or skill-based courses more confidently from one university and utilize the accumulated credits for completing their higher education programs with another, without having to worry about the career backlog. NDU could be India’s next UPI moment making quality education more accessible and flexible and will continue to throttle Edtechs’ mission of making India a Vishwa guru,” Mr. Kumar added.