A major breakthrough in the area of online education in India, the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) has been appointed the national coordinator for India’s most premier educational institutions on the platform of SWAYAM. The decision was made at the 26th session of the SWAYAM Board and was subsequently approved by the Ministry of Education. With this appointment, BHU will now be taking care of the development and ensuring the quality of online courses provided by more than 160 Institutions of National Importance (INIs), like the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), National Institutes of Technology (NITs), Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs), Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs), and Central Universities.

The onus of spearheading this important mission has been assigned to Prof. Ashutosh Mohan from the Institute of Management Studies of BHU. With him at the helm, the university will be in the forefront of mapping the future of online learning in India. Prof. Mohan has pledged to ensure that the courses offered under SWAYAM by the country’s top academic institutions are of international standards in terms of quality, accessibility, and relevance. He highlighted that BHU’s leadership will concentrate on building a strong academic structure that not only reinforces the content but also enriches the learning experience.

The position of BHU as a national coordinator carries a wide range of responsibilities. The university will also be responsible for extending academic and administrative assistance to the participating institutions. One of its key responsibilities will be ensuring that courses prepared under the SWAYAM platform comply with the revised SWAYAM 2024 guidelines. This will include ensuring that course material is in sync with contemporary academic and industry practices, and most importantly, that course material is not duplicated across institutions.

BHU’s appointment is regarded as a move towards further simplifying India’s online education ecosystem. The university will be working in coordination with other regulatory agencies to standardize the tests and certifications made through SWAYAM. These moves will synchronize the platform’s certification processes with the standards prescribed by the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the National Testing Agency (NTA). This action should introduce more consistency to the evaluation system and help ensure that students earn valid, transferable credit for the courses they take online.

In anticipation of this new responsibility, BHU has already shown the seriousness of its intent towards digital education. The university has already worked out 37 online courses and will release another 63 by July 2025. It also has a professional digital studio dedicated to aid in high-quality content production and is actively working on strengthening its digital infrastructure to match the needs of this new task.

With this addition, BHU becomes a part of an elite group of national coordinators consisting of organizations like the University Grants Commission (UGC), All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) via IIT Madras, National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB), and Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU). Each of these institutions has a distinct role in offering specialized learning material through the SWAYAM platform. 

The Government of India initiated the SWAYAM initiative for providing education that is accessible and affordable to all, particularly those in far-off or disadvantaged locations. With the addition of BHU as a national coordinator, the Ministry of Education is seeking to further enhance the quality bar of online courses and extend the coverage of SWAYAM across different areas of studies. With online learning assuming center stage in the world scenario, India’s emphasis on providing quality, relevance, and standardization through credible institutions such as BHU will also help the country become a global leader in digital education.