In the highly unorganized higher education sector, maintaining and managing students’ records takes a lot of work. Due to this, the Ministry of Education in India has introduced ABC ID Card to manage student records in the form of credits digitally. This digital innovation of credit is extremely beneficial for students who want to change colleges or join higher education after dropping out. Because they can use these credits to get admission to a new college as they are stored in a secured database.
What is an ABC ID Card?
The ABC full form is an academic bank of credits. This ID card stores and saves information about the students in a digital format. This ID contains a unique 12-digit code issued to every college student. This ID stores information like certificates, diplomas, degrees training and co-curricular achievements.
The ABC ID connects students to Digilocker where student securely keep their important documents like exam marksheets. Institutions can access the academic credits of the students by student consent.
Origin and Management Authority of ABC ID
ABC ID Card was launched under the National Education Policy in July 2021. It is managed by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Electronics and Informational Technology. It comes under the One Nation, One Student ID program launched by the government. The NAD (National Academic Depository) is the backbone of the ABC system that acts as digital storage. It is a credit mechanism system that stores the academic credits of the students in a digital format earned in the UGC institute. The main purpose of introducing this scheme is to add digitalization and increase accessibility to authentic data in the admission and employment verification process.
Importance of ABC ID Card
ABC ID Card is important to incorporate into the education due to the following reason
- Easy Transfer of credits
This system allows credit transfer from one institution to another. It helps avoid drops and issues when students change universities.
- Centralized Academic Record
This ID allows students to securely store all their academic achievements, credit, and qualifications in one place. ABC system makes the verify degree certificate process online easy and improves the admission delays.
- Quick and simple verification Process
With centralised storage, Institutions and employers can easily access and verify a student’s records. It simplifies the job application and admissions process.
- Long-term Credit Storage
The credits earned by the student while pursuing any course will be valid for 7 years. During these years students can use these credits to get admission to an institution.
- Reduces time-consuming manual paperwork
Digital format eliminates the need for manual submission of degree, diploma or certificate. Now students can share certificates from one institution to another easily.
How Does ABC ID Work?
If, you are a student planning to get admission to the UGC certified university or college. You must know how the ABC ID works.
- Creating an ABC Account
College and university students need to open an ABC Account using basic details like name, address, and course information.
After creating the account, students receive a unique ID and password to check their credits anytime.
- Earning Credit
The government sets a credit system for various courses. When a student finishes a course and passes exams, a credit will be added to the ABC account by the institution.
- Checking and Transferring Credit
The ABC checks and verifies the credits earned by the students. If a student wants to transfer the credit they can use the ABC ID system easily.
- Programs that ABC covered
ABC covered programs like online, and offline, including the distance learning program.
- Validity of ABC Credits
Generally, the credits earned by the student will be valid for 7 years. It is important to learn that the validity of credit depends on the course. Whenever the change occurs, ABC will notify you.
(Note: Students who have dropped out can use these credits to get admission to the new institution anytime during the 7-year valid period).
Easy Steps To Create an ABC ID Card
There are 2 methods that you can follow to create an ABC ID.
Through Digilocker
- Visit the official Digilocker portal.
- Go for ABC registration by creating an account if you don’t have one.
- Log in to your account if you are already registered on the Digi locker.
- Now, log into Digi locker and click on Search documents.
- Navigate to the education and learning section, and select the academic bank of credits.
- Click on the ABC ID Card.
- Fill in the required details such as name, gender, date of birth, admission year, institution name, and identity value.
- After filling and completing all fields to the terms, click on the “Get Document” button to generate your ABC ID.
ABC ID Card Download PDF – Easy Steps
Here is the steps students can follow for downloading the ABC ID Card PDF.
- Visit the Digilocker portal and log in using your credentials.
- Click on the issued documents section
- Navigate the Academic Bank of Credit ID
- Wait for some time until the ID is retrieved.
- Click on download
- ABC card PDF will be downloaded onto your device.
A Quick Brief of identity value in ABC ID card
The identity value in the ABC system is a unique code issued to each student in the system. It is also known as an identifier value. It is made up of alphanumeric combinations that use date of birth, initials, etc. The value in the identity value usually contains the enrollment number, admission number, or registration number of the student.
The identity value helps to track the credit records in the ABC system that contain data of many students.
How Institutions and Employers Can Verify ABC ID and Academic Credentials
For students, the ABC ID is a convenient way to store credits. For admission teams, HR departments, and background verification providers, the real question is different: can we trust what the student has shared?
Manual checks create three problems:
- Delays: Emailing universities or checking uploaded PDFs can take days.
- Fake or edited documents: Forged marksheets and certificates are common in admissions and hiring.
- Inconsistent data: Names, enrollment numbers, and institution details are often entered differently across records.
A verification API fixes this by checking the ID directly against the source, with the student’s consent, instead of relying on a document upload.
Where this helps
- Universities and colleges verifying transferred credits and previous enrollment during admission.
- Edtech platforms onboarding students for certified or credit-linked programs.
- Employers and staffing companies confirming education claims during hiring.
- Background verification (BGV) providers running education checks at scale.
What a typical flow looks like
- The student or candidate shares their ID and gives consent.
- Your system sends the ID to the verification API.
- The API returns the verification result.
- The team approves or flags the record, with no manual follow-up.
FAQs
Ques: How Does the Academic Bank of Credit Work?
Ans: Academic Bank of Credit stores the credit earned by the students from a UGC-certified university or college. It stores the data in a digital format that students can access anytime and share with universities for admission.
Ques: Is Academic Bank of Credit Mandatory?
Ans: Yes, it is a must for each student in India who wants to pursue higher education at a UGC university.
Ques: Is ABC ID Compulsory for Students?
Ans: Yes, it is compulsory for each student, who is pursuing higher education in India.
Ques: What is an academic bank of credit?
Ans: Academic Bank of Credit is a system launched by the government that keeps student records in digital format making it more accessible and trackable.
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