The University Grants Commission has decided to revise the draft of the National Higher Education Qualifications Framework (NHEQF) that established certain assessment parameters for students of higher education, from the undergraduate level to PhD. The decision comes in the wake of the changes in the guidelines of the National Skill Qualifications Framework (NSQF).
The draft of the NHEQF that was published on 30 January states that there would be 6 levels of qualifications in higher education, from the undergraduate certificate that could be acquired after a year of study in the graduation level up to the Master’s degree and PhD.
As per these guidelines, the first year of study at the graduate level would be ‘level 5’ and PhD would be ‘level 10’.
Meanwhile, in the NSQF, the level indicators have been fixed from 4.5 to 8. "Each level represents a different level of complexity, knowledge and autonomy required to demonstrate the competence commensurate for that level," stated a notification.
The recent decision to revise the draft of the NHEFQ was taken after it became evident that these conflicting indicators would create confusion.
Meanwhile, the UGC informed that it would conduct discussions with the heads of the universities from 25 May onwards. The revised framework would be published only after that.