Admissions 2012

I have been meeting principals and directors of various premium as well as not-so-premium colleges and universities to find out about deployment of IT, and have mostly been told that they have 'top of the line' of everything. And their students are being recruited by the best companies.

That might be true, but there is another important side to it. Their own use of IT in various present and prospective student facing applications, leaves much to be desired. Admission - often the first point of contact with the external world - happens to be one of them. What I am writing here will only convey a part of my experience. For a complete experience, one must really try and get his daughter or son to apply online!

The problem starts right from the word go. Everybody has told you that college X has opened online admission from such and such date, and you are struggling to find that button on their website, hoping it to be very prominently placed. After a lot of scrolling up and down, opening and closing several pages, you finally discover that the link comes after you click on 'Last Year Results', then click on 'Supplementary Exams', and then click on 'Exams 2012'. My God, you need to be a professional sleuth to reach the right link!

The biggest shortcoming is the absence of an online application fee payment on many college websites. They accept only 'bank challans', that too in triplicate - one copy to be submitted in the bank, another to be mailed with the hard copy of the online application form, and one to be shown at the time of the entrance test. The result is that one has to run around from one bank branch to another (not a regular branch but one with core banking facility which can issue only a 'challan') to get the right branch, and waste time in the long queues.

The other problem faced is about lack of simple 'tips or FAQs' that will be of great help here. Can I apply for two courses in the same form? My class XII results are awaited, but my form is not being accepted on the ground that I have not uploaded my class XII marksheet, so what should I do? Applicants and their parents are full of such questions, but get frustrated because their forms are not getting submitted. A simple list of commonly asked questions and their solutions can really change user experience. Isn't online admission all about that?

The other funny practice is that after you have finally succeeded in submitting the application form online, many colleges ask you to take a printout of the online form, and courier the same to the college. What is the whole story about applying online then?

The education sector is on a roll as far as investing in IT is concerned. According to estimates, nearly $720 mn worth of IT products and services will be pumped in this year. My strong recommendation would be to spend some of that money on improving websites, and simplify various processes.