Patna: The state has set Sept 30 as the deadline for its 17 universities to upload all pending degrees, marksheets, and other academic records on the National Academic Depository (NAD) and Academic Credit Bank (ABC) portals, as part of a major drive to digitise higher education records.The decision was taken at a review meeting held at Bihar Lok Bhavan on Friday under the chairmanship of governor’s additional chief secretary Dipak Kumar Singh. University-wise progress was reviewed at the meeting, and officials were directed to treat the digitisation exercise as a priority.Progress by universities will now be reviewed every fortnight through video conferencing, while the digitisation and uploading of academic records maintained by the Bihar School Examination Board will be monitored weekly.The state will also digitise old academic records, including handwritten and paper-based documents. The national coordinator of NAD-ABC said the portal will be reopened from Sept 1 to Oct 31 to enable the digitisation and uploading of pending records, keeping Bihar’s specific requirements in view.The higher education department will provide additional manpower to help universities convert older records into digital form. A common format will also be developed for uploading old marks-based records uniformly.Patliputra University, Magadh University, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar Bihar University, Veer Kunwar Singh University and Lalit Narayan Mithila University have been assigned to finalise this common format, which will then be implemented across all universities.To resolve technical issues, each state university will be provided an IT manager to assist with digitisation, uploading, monitoring, and troubleshooting.Officials said the move will reduce the burden on students by allowing quick access to authenticated degrees, marksheets, and certificates from anywhere, making documentation for higher education, employment, and overseas studies faster, simpler, and more transparent.The meeting was attended by university controllers of examinations, NAD coordinators, NAD-ABC National Coordinator Prakash Kumar Pandey and officials of the higher education department and Bihar Lok Bhavan.
