What ABC and APAAR are

The Academic Bank of Credits is a digital repository of academic credits set up by the Ministry of Education and regulated by UGC. Each student registers and receives an APAAR ID, a 12-digit identifier linked to their Aadhaar and DigiLocker account. Institutions deposit the credits students earn against that ID, and students can carry, transfer and redeem them across institutions.

• Credits stay valid for up to seven years, or the period a discipline prescribes.
• Up to 40% of credits can be earned through SWAYAM online courses.
• Degrees and mark sheets are issued through the National Academic Depository (NAD), which runs on DigiLocker.

What an institution has to do

1. Register on NAD and ABC, and keep the institution's details current.
2. Make sure every enrolled student has an APAAR ID, ideally from admission.
3. Define the credit structure of every programme and course.
4. Upload earned credits after every result, against each student's APAAR ID.
5. Issue degrees and mark sheets through NAD.

Where it goes wrong

• Students admitted without APAAR IDs, chased one by one at result time.
• Names and dates of birth that don't match Aadhaar, so uploads are rejected.
• Credit structures that live in a regulations PDF rather than in the system.
• Uploads done by hand from spreadsheets, semester after semester.

How uniV handles it

uniV captures APAAR IDs at admission, checks student details against them, holds each programme's credit structure, and uploads credits automatically when results are published. Degrees go to NAD from the same records. Your Registrar approves; nobody rebuilds a spreadsheet.

Sources: PIB factsheet on ABC and APAAR · CivilsDaily on the 30 June 2026 deadline · PIB factsheet on NAD

What is changing

A Ministry of Education committee headed by Dr K. Radhakrishnan recommended reforming accreditation in two stages.

1. Binary accreditation. An institution is declared accredited or not accredited, with no grade or score.
2. Maturity-based graded levels. Accredited institutions are placed on five levels. Level 4 is "Institutions of National Excellence" and Level 5 is "Institutions of Global Excellence for Multi-Disciplinary Research and Education".

Both assess processes, outcomes and impact rather than mainly inputs. Implementation dates have moved more than once, so check NAAC's current notices for the timeline that applies to your institution.

One Nation, One Data

The reforms propose that institutions submit data once, to be cross-checked against other government records such as AISHE and NIRF. A figure claimed to one body has to match what the others hold. Accreditation starts to look less like a document prepared for a visit and more like a record kept continuously.

What to do now

• Keep student, staff, programme and infrastructure data in one system, current all year.
• Reconcile what you have filed with AISHE and NIRF against your own records.
• Store the documents behind each claim where you can find them in minutes.
• Clean up past years' data before it is checked against other sources.

How uniV handles it

uniV keeps one record per student and staff member, files AISHE and NIRF data from it, and maps accreditation metrics to the same records with their supporting documents. Whatever framework applies to you, the numbers agree everywhere.

Sources: Telangana Today on the NAAC reforms · Careers360 on the two-stage implementation · Campx on One Nation One Data

How outcome-based education works

Every course states its course outcomes (COs). Each CO is mapped to the programme outcomes (POs) and programme-specific outcomes (PSOs) on a strength scale, usually 1 to 3. Attainment is then measured:

• Directly, from the marks students score on the questions tied to each CO, in internal tests, assignments and end-semester exams.
• Indirectly, from surveys of students, alumni and employers.

CO attainment rolls up into PO and PSO attainment for the programme, which is compared with a target. Where an outcome falls short, the programme records an action and shows the improvement in the next cycle. All of this goes into the Self Assessment Report (SAR).

Why it becomes a scramble

• Each faculty member keeps a spreadsheet per course, often with different formulas.
• Questions are not tagged to COs when papers are set, so mapping happens after the fact.
• Marks live in one system and attainment in another, so they are copied by hand.
• Evidence for previous years has to be reconstructed when the visit is announced.

How uniV handles it

Course outcomes and mappings live in the curriculum module. Question papers are tagged to COs as they are set. Marks flow in from internals and exams, attainment is calculated course by course and programme by programme, and the SAR is generated from the same data for your IQAC to review. Always check NBA's current SAR format for your programme's tier.

References: National Board of Accreditation · An overview of common NBA documentation pains

The scale of the problem

Delays are reported in many states. One example shows the scale: in Telangana, government data reported in September 2026 showed that of ₹7,673.78 crore in fee-reimbursement demand for 2023-24 to 2025-26, only ₹2,160.03 crore (28%) had been released, leaving ₹5,513.75 crore (72%) unpaid. The share paid fell from 40.82% for 2023-24 to 7.92% for 2025-26. Colleges have withheld certificates and held strikes over the arrears.

What a college controls

Every state runs its own scheme and portal, but the pattern is the same. Release of funds is a government decision. Whether each of your students' claims is complete, eligible and submitted on time is yours. Claims commonly stall on:

• Missing or expired income and caste certificates.
• Aadhaar or bank details that don't match the student's record.
• Attendance or other eligibility conditions under the scheme's rules.
• Renewals not filed for continuing students.
• No single list showing which claims are pending, paid or rejected, and why.

How uniV handles it

uniV checks documents and details at admission, tracks eligibility through the year, prepares claims for national and state portals such as NSP, MahaDBT, ePASS and Jnanabhumi, and keeps every claim's status in one list with the amount owed. Management sees reimbursement receivables next to fee collections, every day.

Source: Telangana Today, "72% of dues for three years remain unpaid"