NAGPUR UNIVERSITY NEWS 2012- Universities go digital, save paperwork hassle

NAGPUR: Students seeking admission in universities in the state can now bid goodbye to long queues and the dreaded form submission process. From the coming academic session, students can apply, confirm admission, pay fees and even ask for revaluation straight from their home. The state government-promoted Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Limited (MKCL) is launching a website (www.ugpgadmission.com) on May 21 which will eliminate unnecessary bureaucratic red tape in student-university interactions.
Managing director of MKCL Vivek Sawant said, "We have tied up with nine universities, including Nagpur, and every interaction of students with the university regarding form filling will be done digitally. Students have to create an ID to login into our website and store their educational details, based on which our software will give a list of universities and courses they are eligible for. Every service on this portal will be available free of cost."
The participating varsities include Mumbai, Nagpur, Gadchiroli, Aurangabad, Jalgaon, Kolhapur, Solapur, Amravati and SNDT (Women's University).
MKCL has been working on this project for the last one year and has the latest data of 3,500 colleges affiliated to these nine universities. Once students select a course and college for the degree course they can submit an online application to the concerned university. University officials will verify eligibility parameters and if additional information is required they will post a comment online which can be viewed by the student.
Sawant, said, "The online form will be absolutely flawless since it will not let the student submit unless the eligibility criteria are met. When students fill a hard copy of the form they sometimes choose three electives even though only two might be allowed, but the software will not allow that kind of an error."
Once the application has been accepted, students can pay the fee either online or pay it directly at the office. Once the admission process is complete students will also get their I-Card, library card and bona fide certificate online.
"Submission of examination form is the most bureaucratic of all processes. I wonder why universities need to know their students' names and gender every six months in the examination form. With our website all that students have to do is click the submit button online as their form would have been automatically filled using the data they entered for admissions," said Sawant.
After filling the exam forms students will soon get their hall tickets online. Once exams are over requests for marks verification and revaluation can also be made online.
"Apart from university-specific interaction, this portal will also work as an information portal for competitive exams in the country. Details of almost 400 exams, their last dates and application forms will be available online for the benefit of students," said Sawant.
Board result season to begin next week
Board result season to begin next week with all three major boards almost ready with the data. Council for The Indian School Certificate Examinations which conducts both the ISC (Std XII) and ICSE (Std X) will be declaring the results next week without fail, said additional secretary of the board Gerry Arathoon.
CBSE too is set to declare its Std XII results in the third week of May itself, and Std X results by month end. CBSE PRO Rama Sharma, said, "Exact date has not been finalized yet but we are looking to wrap up everything before the month ends." Maharashtra state board is likely to declare HSC results on May 23 while SSC results are scheduled for mid-June.