Analysis of Choice Based Credit System in Higher Education

The institutions of higher education are in need of an infusion of a new model of education in order to keep the curriculum in pace with changing environment which includes technology adoption, changing industry requirement, changing aspiration of students and changing expectations of society. It is expected that two models and two systems of higher education are going to get importance in this changing environment. The two models of higher education which are going to be relevant in future days are (1) Conventional classroom-based education model and (2) Technology supported online ubiquitous education model. The two higher education systems which are expected to be attractive to the learners are Choice Based Credit system and Competency based Credit system. University Grants Commission has come up with the Choice Based Credit System (CBCS) programme in which the students have a choice to choose from the prescribed courses, which are referred as core, elective or minor or soft skill courses and they can learn at their own pace and the entire assessment is graded based on a credit system. The basic idea is to look into the needs of the students so as to keep up-to-date with the development of higher education in India and abroad. CBCS aims to redefine the curriculum keeping pace with the liberalisation and globalisation in education. CBCS allows students an easy mode of mobility to various educational institutions spread across the world along with the facility of transfer of credits earned by students. In this paper, we have attempted to make a comparative analysis of "Choice Based Credit System" using SWOC analysis and ABCD analysis.