By Prof. (Dr.) Veera Talukdar

(The author is the Controller of Examinations at
Dr. Vishwanath Karad MITWPU, Pune.)

Six years after the launch of the National
Education Policy (NEP) 2020, India’s higher-
education system stands at an important
crossroads. Policies promised to move universities
beyond rigid disciplines, rote learning and
excessive regulation towards interdisciplinary and
multidisciplinary education, academic flexibility,
research, autonomy, innovation, skills and lifelong
learning.

Several significant reforms have been initiated.
However, the central question is no longer whether
NEP 2020 has been implemented in Its true spirit
and form, but whether it has produced meaningful

change in the lives of students, teachers,
institutions and employers.

The reforms through NEP 2020 has incorporated
and/or strengthened several important verticals
like Academic Bank of Credits, Multiple Entry and
Multiple Exit, National Credit Framework:
Interdisciplinary& Multidisciplinary education,
Project based learning, internships, on-job training
Research and innovation, Internationalisation, etc..

These measures represent an important change in
the architecture of higher education. The UGC has
also issued several regulations and guidelines
relating to credit mobility, online learning,
internships, etc.

To be honest enough Architectural change in
academics is not transformation because The
creation of a new framework does not
automatically create a new educational experience.
A revised curriculum does not automatically
produce a better classroom. An Academic Bank of

Credits does not automatically guarantee seamless
academic mobility. Multiple Exit does not
automatically create meaningful employment
opportunities.A interdisciplinary or
multidisciplinary framework does not
automatically make a university genuinely
interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary and so on.

The real success of NEP 2020 must therefore be
measured not only by the number of regulations
issued, institutions onboarded or frameworks
adopted, but by the outcomes experienced by
learners and society.

As NEP enters its seventh year, government
bodies, regulators and higher-education institutions
must examine whether students are learning
differently, and not merely studying under revised
syllabi,faculties are receiving adequate training,
academic freedom and institutional support,
research and industry should become integral to
academic life while graduates become more
employable, adaptable and capable of lifelong
learning. Emphasises must be given to credits

genuinely transferable between institutions and no
procedural and institutional barriers should not
restrict mobility.

Flexibility is one of the most valuable promises of
NEP 2020. Yet flexibility can become unequal if
students do not have comparable access to
technology, counselling, transport, financial
support, quality institutions and employment
opportunities.

A privileged student may use multiple entry and
exit options to explore different disciplines, gain
work experience and return to education. A
financially vulnerable student may be compelled to
exit early and may not possess the resources
required to re-enter. The policy must therefore
ensure that flexibility becomes a pathway for
opportunity and not merely a mechanism that
normalises incomplete education.

HEIs must now move beyond formal compliance
and develop measurable institutional action plans.

Every institution should publish clear information
on courses and credits eligible for transfer,
academic and financial implications of entry and
exit options, The availability and quality of
internships and PBLs, Faculty-student ratios,
Research output, industry collaboration and
innovation support, Support available to
economically and socially disadvantaged
learners,etc.

Private universities, in particular, have an
opportunity to become major partners in the
transformation of Indian higher education. Their
contribution should be assessed not merely
through infrastructure, branding or international
tie-ups, but through teaching quality, research
relevance, ethical governance, affordability,
inclusion and measurable student outcomes.

EoM.