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Journalism of Courage
On the first day of admissions Monday, several degree colleges struggled to adapt to the state government’s one-stop admission portal – Unified University & College Management System (UUCMS).
According to the numbers shared by the higher education department, just over 1,13,000 students submitted applications to 3,264 degree colleges through the portal. Of them, 51,666 students have applied to government colleges and 62,209 students have applied to non-government ones.
In fact, around 300 colleges, mostly from the Kalburgi region – were yet to link their bank accounts to the payment gateways for admission fees. Till now, 2,200 institutes have linked their bank accounts to the portal.
A government degree college in Uppinangady in Dakshina Kannada district was reportedly conducting offline admissions this year owing to technical snags hitting the portal. Moreover, the Dakshina Kannada region has been experiencing incessant rains and flooding for the past one week. A principal of a degree college in Uppinangady said, “We are not able to process the application to the next level after some students filled the online application. Hence, we have decided to accept physical applications and switched to an offline admission process. The technical glitch has impeded the admission process in many colleges in this district.”
Another principal from a degree college in Bengaluru complained that the UUCMS portal was not user-friendly. “Although the UUCMS portal is a good transformation, the government has given very little time for colleges to understand the portal. We cannot get the database regarding the region from where the student is applying. Students are finding it difficult in selecting languages and open elective subjects…” the principal said.
Meanwhile, the State Higher Education Council (SHEC) has for the first time prepared a common calendar of events for academic activities in universities and degree colleges. Higher Education Minister Ashwath Narayan has instructed all universities and colleges in the state to mandatorily follow the same calendar of events for the academic year 2022-23.
As per the calendar, the admission for degree courses across the state would commence on July 11 and classes would start between Aug 17-24. Likewise, the admission for post-graduation would commence on October 15, and classes for the same would start between November 2-14.
So far, every university used to set up its own calendar of events and this was causing inconvenience and confusion among students. Considering the plight of students, a common calendar of events has been brought out, the minister said.
The calendar has been finalized after consultations with vice-chancellors and registrars of all the universities in the state, officials said.
