UP students to own web page

Updated on: Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Every student, who is pursuing higher education in Uttar Pradesh would soon have a web page of his own. The state higher education department has directed all the state universities to prepare a database of the students with relevant details. In this regard, Uptron Powertronics Ltd will create a software to have a centralised database of six state universities. For the remaining five, Shreetron India Ltd has been roped in.

Higher education officials in July 2010 had tried to create a master database for all institutes of higher learning in UP. They had then directed all state universities, regional officers and directorate (higher education) to ensure that university-wise and district-wise data is uploaded on their website by July 15, 2010. But, the response has been poor. As a result, two out of four government colleges in the city do not even have their own website. Talk about government-aided and self-finance colleges, more than 70 percent lack means of information. Over the period, only deadlines have been violated. The condition is even worse in other universities and colleges in the state.

Now, with Uptron taking the lead, it seems that higher education officials will be able to meet their June 30 deadline. The state universities have a lot of information, but it needs to be put together at a place. We expect that by the end of the month there will be sufficient information. We are planning to make the first cut in July, said principal secretary, higher education, Avnish Awasthi. The department has also allocated a sum of Rs 16,66,676 for each university to create database. It is estimated that the process will help in creating a database of nearly 45 lakh students in the state.

As per Awasthi, an unique identification number (UID) will be provided to each student. It is almost impossible to monitor such a huge strength physically. The only way is through data creation. The companies roped in will be able to create a software till January and by March next, we will be in a position to have detailed information, said Awasthi.

Once the database is created, Awasthi said, higher education officials plan to make admission process fully online. As per the latest proposal, admissions to all the state universities in this academic session will be online. It will increase transparency and establishment of full proof system, said the principal secretary, higher education. Later, the entire working of the universities from admission to examination will be made online.

According to sources, the Centre in 2009-10 had asked all universities to create a transparent and fool-proof database. But, the work could not begin as the funds were not released. In the academic session 2010-11, the universities were directed to gather the information like student strength and number of enrolments, among others. A Lucknow University official said, The companies roped in to create software for the centralised database are presently studying the pattern of universities in UP, as they are finding it difficult to adopt the same system as that used in Delhi University.

Higher education officials have accelerated the pace following a meeting of states education ministers with union HRD minister Kapil Sibal, where they agreed to have a comprehensive and reliable database on higher education to reflect not only the factual status of higher education sector, but also to aid in planning the sectors growth in order to address the issues of access, equity, relevance and quality.

Times of India

UP students to own web page

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