UGC directs varsities to come onboard NAS

Hyderabad: The University Grants Commission (UGC) has set a deadline for all the technical institutions in the country to come on-board with the National Academic Depository (NAD).

In a communique by UGC Chairman Prof Anil D Sahasrabudhe to the directors, registrars and principals of the universities, said colleges should take steps to join the NAD latest by September 2019.

Citing the Union Human Resources Minister directive, he said "all Technical Educational Institutions should come on-board with NAD before September 2019".

The NAD has been established to ensure a 24 x7 digital and safe electronic storehouse of all academic awards viz certificates, degrees, diplomas, mark sheets etc.

It allows the academic institutions, school boards and other education regulators to upload the academic awards which are authenticated and validated.

As part of implementing the NAD mechanism, the communique said the NAD consists of two inter-operable digital repositories viz. CDSL Ventures Limited (CVL) and NSDL Database Management Limited (NDML).

The NAD would benefit various stakeholders like technical institutions, students, prospective employers as the degrees, mark sheets, certificates etc, would be available with just a click of a mouse, the communique said.

Also, several services like lodging, maintenance, access, verification and authentication of academic awards in a digital format shall be provided through NAD, he said.

Keeping in view the significance of this important e-governance initiative in the education sector and the benefits in-built within NAD, most of the user charges of NAD services viz., registration, uploading of awards, initial trainings etc. are kept out of the purview of user charges for the time being (till September 2019), he added.

The UGC is the authorized designated body to operationalize NAD and it has already entered into an agreement with CVL and NDML.

The technical institutions, in turn, are free to select either of the two entities for entering into a legally enforceable agreement between them and the selected depository for utilizing the services of NAD.

As the AICTE has also wanted that all approved institutions affiliated to it including Universities, Deemed to be Universities and standalone PGDM and PGCA Institutes should also come on board with NAD.

For this, they are advised to take necessary steps in consultation with their affiliating University wherever required.

Besides, the autonomous and Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme (TEQP) institutions having academic autonomy should also come onboard in consultation with their affiliating University with NAD on or before September 2019, he said.