Changing Universities? Nepal’s New UGC Rules Let Students Carry Eligible Academic Credits

UGC Introduces National Academic Credit Bank Framework

Kathmandu, August 10, 2026 — The University Grants Commission (UGC) has issued the Academic Credit Bank Establishment and Operation Directive, 2082, establishing rules for students to store and transfer academic credits earned from recognized higher education institutions. The directive applies to universities and institutions operating under Nepal’s prevailing laws and is designed to make credit recognition and transfer more systematic, transparent and consistent, particularly when students need to continue their studies at another institution or program.

What Is the Academic Credit Bank?

The directive defines the Academic Credit Bank (ABC) as a digital, virtual and online system for recording and accumulating academic credits earned by students.

UGC will operate one Academic Credit Bank on a digital platform. Students are treated as beneficiaries of the system, with their academic credits stored digitally so they can potentially be used or transferred when required.

In simple terms, the idea is that academic credits should be able to follow the student rather than remain usable only at the institution where they were originally earned.

Students Will Have Individual Digital Accounts

Students who want to deposit their credits must open an individual Academic Credit Bank account in digital form.

According to the directive, applicants must provide personal details, academic certificates, information on credits earned from recognized institutions and other documents specified by the UGC. Credits are deposited only after the documents are verified.

The account can then be used to maintain recognized credits and facilitate future credit-transfer requests.

Changing University Does Not Mean Automatic Transfer

The directive does not say that students can simply move to any university and automatically carry all of their previous credits.

A student seeking to transfer credits must first be eligible to study at the institution they want to join. The student must then apply to the UGC for credit transfer after the university confirms that the credits can be used.

The receiving university therefore remains an important decision-maker in the process.

Courses Must Be Academically Equivalent

One of the most important requirements is equivalency.

Credits may be transferred when the curriculum and subjects are considered equivalent. For interdisciplinary subjects, equivalency must be established, and transfer is allowed only with the recommendation of the relevant university’s academic council or the authorized body concerned.

This means completing a course at University A does not automatically guarantee that University B must count it toward a different degree.

Students Can Transfer Only Up to 50%

There is also a major restriction on the amount of previous study that can be carried forward.

The directive states that transferred credits cannot exceed 50 percent of the curriculum of the program the student wants to study.

For example, a student cannot use the Academic Credit Bank to transfer nearly an entire degree and then complete only a small portion at the new institution.

Bachelor’s Credits Valid for Seven Years

Academic credits also come with time limits.

According to the directive, credits deposited in the Academic Credit Bank can be transferred and used for up to:

Bachelor’s level — 7 years
Master’s level — 5 years

The time restriction is significant for students returning to higher education after taking a long break.

Incomplete Semester or Academic Year Cannot Be Transferred

The directive contains another important restriction that students should know.

It states that credits from an incomplete semester or academic year cannot be transferred.

Therefore, the framework should not be interpreted as allowing students to convert every partially completed course or unfinished semester into transferable academic credit.

Credits Must Appear on Academic Records

Transparency is also built into the framework.

The directive requires details of credits obtained through transfer to be recorded on the student's academic certificate or transcript.

This creates a formal record of which academic work was completed through the student's current institution and which credits were recognized through transfer.

Foreign Institutions Are Covered

The directive's definitions also recognize higher education institutions established under the prevailing laws of foreign countries, alongside institutions established in Nepal.

It specifically defines a “foreign higher education institution” as an institution established under the prevailing law of another country and authorized to conduct higher education programs.

This provides a framework under which eligible academic work completed abroad can potentially enter Nepal's credit-transfer system, provided the applicable recognition, documentation and equivalency requirements are satisfied.

UGC Sets Minimum Standards for Credit Recognition

The directive goes beyond simply creating a digital account.

Its Schedule 2 establishes minimum standards for credit certification. These include the course level and type, course objectives, quality approval, student workload, teaching-learning activities, assessment and evaluation, learning outcomes, and documentation and transparency.

This is important because the system is intended to compare the actual academic value behind credits rather than treating every credit from every institution as automatically identical.

UGC Also Standardizes Grading

The directive includes grading standards for undergraduate and graduate programs.

For undergraduate study, for example, an A corresponds to a 4.0 grade point and 90% or above, while the directive provides additional ranges down to failing grades. It separately establishes the grading structure for graduate-level programs.

The document even provides a formula for converting a 10-point grading scale into a four-point scale. For example, a GPA of 8.5 on a 10-point system converts proportionally to 3.4 on a four-point scale.

How Students Apply for Credit Transfer

The application format included in Schedule 1 shows that students seeking a transfer must submit information including their name, citizenship number, Academic Credit Bank account details, contact information, academic institution and program, total credits earned and the institution/program where those credits are intended to be transferred.

Applicants must also provide supporting documents, including identification, details of credits earned from the relevant institution and documentation supporting their intended use of those credits.

What This Actually Means for Students

The directive creates a national mechanism through which eligible academic progress can potentially move with a student.

A student who needs to change institutions or programs may therefore have a route to preserve qualifying coursework instead of automatically repeating everything from the beginning.

But there is an important distinction: the directive creates a credit-transfer framework, not an unconditional right to transfer every credit.

The receiving institution must accept the academic use of the credits, subjects must satisfy equivalency requirements, incomplete semesters or years cannot be transferred, transferred coursework cannot exceed 50% of the new program, and bachelor’s and master’s credits are subject to seven- and five-year limits respectively.

Why the New Framework Matters

The Academic Credit Bank is designed to give Nepal a more standardized system for recognizing academic work across higher education institutions.

Instead of different institutions relying entirely on disconnected credit-transfer practices, the UGC framework establishes common requirements for credit storage, verification, equivalency, transfer, grading conversion and academic documentation.

For students, its real significance is not simply that “credits can now be transferred.” It is that Nepal now has a formal national framework defining when, how and how much academic credit can be carried from one institution or program to another.

Source: University Grants Commission (UGC) Nepal, Academic Credit Bank Establishment and Operation Directive 2082