SWAYAM platform enrolment touches one crore mark

Hyderabad: Hitting one crore mark of enrolment on the SWAYAM, the self-learning platform, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has asked the Universities to notify 43 postgraduate non-technology MOOCs courses for the semester starting from July 2019.

A UGC circular to the universities said one crore enrolment of students, teachers, professionals, senior citizens in various MOOCs courses offered though SWAYAM platform has helped make education reach the unreached through the SWAYAM initiative of the Government Of India.

The number of universities so far opted for it has grown to 122 allowing credit transfer for the regular students who have earned credit by enrolling and completing the SWAYAM online courses.

It may be mentioned here that the UGC Credit Framework for online courses through SWAYAM regulations 2016 allows students to take up courses from Class 10 to postgraduate level to earn credits.

It is against this backdrop that the UGC has been offering new courses for every semester to the learners of various levels.

Accordingly, for the semester starting from July 2019, it has notified a list of 43 courses for the postgraduate level learners.

The subjects covered under the new list of courses are social sciences, humanities, law, taxation, bio-sciences, environmental studies, disaster management studies, language and literature, public administration, philosophy and religious studies etc.

The topics under each subject area includes academic writing, analytical techniques, animations, applied multivariate analysis, biomass characterisation, biostatistics and mathematical biology, Brihajja Takam (Falit Jyotish), communication and research, corporate tax planning, cybersecurity, digital marketing, direct tax laws and practice, information technology, computer sciences and web content management etc.

The circular said that the enrolment for the July 2019 semester is already open and the students can enrol till August 31, it added.

It asked the universities to pitch in to prescribe the latest courses as part of the credit-earning for the regular students.

Further, it said that the examination dates of postgraduate and undergraduate SWAYAM courses would be held on the second Saturday and Sunday of November 2019 and the NPTEL MOOCs course examinations are scheduled on September 29 and on November 16 and 17,2019.

Keeping the examination schedule of the SWAYAM and NPTEL, the circular asked the universities to fix their examination calendar for the semester starting from July 2019.