- Higher education courses for free including those on AI, cyber security
- There are 23,000 postgraduate courses in addition to 25 non-engineering SWAYAM courses and 137 SWAYAM MOOC courses in emerging fields. These can be accessed for free on the UGC platform
IndiGlobal Bureau
The University Grants Commission (UGC) announced that more than 23,000 higher education courses, including programmes in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and early childhood care, will now be free to access on a new web platform.
The UGC e-resources portal with Common Service Centres (CSCs) (http://digitalseva.csc.gov.in) is part of the second anniversary of the National Education Policy 2020, with the goal of reducing the digital divide and improving access to higher education in rural areas of the nation.
The courses will begin in the upcoming academic session of 2022-2023, the UGC has partnered with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to integrate the e-resources with their more than 7.5 lakh Common Service Centers (CSC) and Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) Centers.
“As part of its efforts in making higher education accessible to all, the UGC has been constantly working in making digital resources available to students in English as well as regional languages,” UGC Chairman M Jagadesh Kumar said.
More than 5 lakh CSC/SPV centres are operational throughout the nation, while about 2.5 lakh CSCs and SPVs are in use in Gram Panchayats.
“The CSCs and SPVs are being managed and operated by entrepreneurs who belong to the local community and referred to as village level entrepreneurs (VLEs). VLEs operate the centres to earn their living by delivering online services. These centres have computers and internet connectivity,” said Kumar.
“All courses are free. However, for availing the services and infrastructure of CSC/SVP, a user has to pay a fee of Rs 20 per day or Rs 500 per month to reimburse the VLEs efforts and cost of their infrastructure,” said Kumar.
