Over 23,000 postgraduate courses to be offered for free on UGC’s new portal 

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has announced to offer more than 23,000 higher education courses such as programmes on Artificial Intelligence, cyber security and early childhood care, for free on their new portal, starting 29 July. 

Marking the second anniversary of the National Education Policy-2020, the free of cost courses are aimed to bridge the digital divide and enhance accessibility of higher education in remote parts of the country.

Tying up with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology(MeitY), the UGC has integrated the e-resources with their 7.5 lakh Common Service Centres (CSC) and Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) Centres to offer these courses from the upcoming academic session of 2022-23.

Speaking on the same, UGC Chairman M Jagadesh Kumar said,”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.” 

Around 2.5 lakh CSCs and SPVs are operating in Gram Panchayats and more than 5 lakh CSCs/SPVs centres are functional across the country. 

“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. 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,” added Kumar.

Users will be offered over 23,000 postgraduate courses in addition to 25 non-engineering SWAYAM courses and 137 SWAYAM MOOC courses in emerging fields, which can be accessed for free on the UGC platform.