Higher Education Courses Will Be Available For Free: UGC Makes Big Announcement

 

The courses include 23,000 postgraduate courses, 137 SWAYAM MOOC courses in emerging areas, and 25 non-engineering SWAYAM courses including programs on Artificial Intelligence, cyber security, and early childhood care, which will now be available free of cost on a new web portal, the University Grants Commission (UGC). They are enhancing the accessibility of higher education in remote parts of the country and will be launched on Friday as part of the second anniversary of the National Education Policy-2020. 

 

The UGC has tied up with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to integrate the e-resources with their over 7.5 lakh Common Service Centers (CSC) and Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) Centers to offer these courses from the forthcoming academic session of 2022-23. The CSCs and SPVs are being managed and operated by entrepreneurs who belong to the local community and are referred to as village-level entrepreneurs (VLEs). VLEs operate the centers to earn their living by delivering online services. These centers have computers and internet connectivity," said Kumar.

 

The courses include 23,000 postgraduate courses, 137 SWAYAM MOOC courses in emerging areas, and 25 non-engineering SWAYAM courses. There are no charges for accessing these on the UGC portal.

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"All courses are free. However, for availing of the services and infrastructure of CSC/ SVP, a user has to pay a fee of ₹20 per day or ₹500 per month to reimburse the VLES efforts and cost of their infrastructure," said Kumar.

"This is similar to other government projects like Ayushman Bharat Yojana, PM Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana, e-Shram, Pan Card, Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maandhan Yojana (PMSYM), and many others," Kumar added.