ACADEMIC BANK OF CREDITS

These are the terms (the “Agreement”) governing your participation in the Academic Bank of Credit (hereafter referred to as the “ABC”), established by the Ministry of Education and University Grants Commission (hereby referred to as “MoE” and “UGC” respectively), implemented by National eGovernance Division (NeGD), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). By participating in the ABC programme, you agree to these terms, which form a binding legal contract between ABC and the registered participant (“you”). If you are registering on behalf of an Academic Institution, it is the academic institution’s competent authority’s responsibility to ensure the person participating is the authorized person aware of these terms and accepts them. Therefore, by completing the registration on behalf of the Academic Institution, you warrant that you have made the participant aware of these terms and that they have accepted these terms.

1. ELIGIBILITY TERMS
   The University Grants Commission has amended the Academic Bank of Credit (ABC) regulation to bring all higher education institutions under the same platform. All universities, colleges and autonomous educational institutions can now take part in the ABC system irrespective of their National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) rating and National Institute Ranking Framework (NIRF) ranks.
2. STATUTORY APPROVAL
   To participate in the ABC scheme, participating Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) of the aforementioned categories must receive approval from their respective Statutory authorities, such as the Governing Council/Syndicate/Board of Management/Academic Council, etc.
3. ROLE OF NATIONAL ACADEMIC DEPOSITORY (NAD) IN ABC
   ABC is a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) modelled after the “National Academic Depository,” in which academic institutions will be provided with additional services such as credit verification, credit accumulation, credit transfer/redemption, and degree authentication, with students serving as account holders.
4. ACADEMIC INSTITUTIONS PARTICIPATION
   It is the sole responsibility of the participating institution to ensure the student coming for admission creates an ABC account. The Academic Institution should also ensure that the APAAR ID created against the student gets recorded in their certificate records from time to time. As a crucial step, Academic Institutions should ensure the marksheet data, especially the credit score, gets recorded in the NAD system before starting the next semester.

   In the interest of students, credits earned under the ABC scheme are flexibly kept for an extended period of time; the validity of such credits earned will be limited to a maximum of 7 years or as specified separately by ABC for different subject disciplines to allow credit redemption after the date of earning such credits.

   All students desiring to open an ‘Academic Account’ in ABC shall receive student counselling and guidance from ABC registered Higher Education Institutions (HEI) about the details of utilising ABC services in terms of credit definition, credit accumulation, credit transfer, credit redemption, as well as the opening, closure, and validation of students’ ‘Academic Accounts,’ provided their request applications are recommended through the parent University/Autonomous or Affiliated colleges which are already registered with ABC.

5. STUDENTS PARTICIPATION
   Students should ensure that they are registered with ABC after being accepted into any of the ABC-identified institutions. In order to take advantage of ABC’s benefits, they must also present their APAAR ID to the ABC nodal officer. In addition, students who transfer to other academic institutions should make sure that their APAAR ID is submitted to the nodal person on a regular basis so that credit can be accrued under ABC. ABC will not accept credit course documents directly from students and will only consider them genuine after being provided by the appropriate, registered HEI granting the credits.
6. ACCOUNT INFORMATION
   The participant may be required to establish an account in order to use ABC services available on or through the Site. Participants must take all reasonable precautions to ensure that no unauthorised person has access to their account or password.
   It is solely the duty of the participant to:
1. Maintain control over the distribution and use of their account and password.
2. Notify ABC immediately if an account or password needs to be deactivated. ABC is not responsible for any activity conducted through the user’s account (whether or not allowed by the user), any harm caused by password theft, or the user’s disclosure of passwords. Any illegal use of a participant’s account or password must be reported to ABC immediately. Any losses incurred as a consequence of the usage of the participant’s account and username are exclusively the participant’s responsibility. The participant’s account or password may not be used to compromise the security of another account.
7. IDENTIFICATION INFORMATION
   By enrolling for the ABC programme and agreeing to these terms and conditions, you provide ABC complete permission to communicate your progress and student involvement with the appropriate MoE/UGC authorities at any time.
8. EXCLUSION
   ABC has the right to reject registration to any participant who, in ABC’s judgment, has not been approved by any regulatory authority or who does not comply with ABC’s terms and conditions. If such a situation develops, ABC has the authority to remove the participant from the programme without warning.
9. PRIVACY
   Our Privacy Policy governs the Site’s use. These Terms of Service contain and make the Privacy Policy a part of them.
10. CONCLUDING PROVISIONS
    As directed by the Ministry of Education, ABC retains the right to alter any of its General Terms and Conditions at any time and without notice.