Mumbai: St Xavier’s selects AI, others hunt for online admission solutions

MUMBAI: Students sitting at home can appear for entrance exams for mass media (BMM), management (BMS) and four masters’ programmes offered at St Xavier’s College (Mumbai). For the first time, it will conduct an artificial intelligence-proctored test, that will allow aspirants to give it from anywhere in India.
Principal Rajendra Shinde said the test was outsourced to an agency.“It has software that tracks a candidate’s eye movement and any other movement in the room. It gives three warnings and then logs the student out the fourth time,” said the principal. “We had to opt for the software, as conducting physical exams seemed impossible with Covid-19,” he said.
While few have an online system for admissions in place, most city colleges are scurrying to set it up. Some offered forms online, but students had to physically submit documents and make payments. Covid-19 has compelled colleges to look for end-to-end online solutions for admissions. Some have outsourced the process to complete junior (class XII) and degree (second and third year) college admissions.
D G Ruparel College principal Tushar Desai said they were finalising a software for admissions. "We released class XI results online but we cannot call students to the campus for admissions to maintain social distancing. Colleges will have to ensure the software is mobile-friendly, so that students are not forced to go to a cyber cafe. The idea is to enable students to complete admissions from home,” said Desai. The college is also used by BMC as a quarantine centre and therefore the process is slightly delayed.
At Kelkar-Vaze College (Mulund), admissions had gone online last year. While students filled regular admission forms for degree colleges online, Google forms were circulated for students to fill choices of subjects now, said principal B B Sharma. Matunga’s Ruia College too had a system, but document verification for first year admissions was offline.
A western suburbs college professor said many students were comfortable with online payment mode. “Since these are internal college admissions, the process was convenient. For first year junior and degree college admissions, colleges will have to get more features,” said the professor. Second and third year online classes are likely to start from July.
TIMES VIEW: While some administrative processes had gone online, the state never invested much in campus digitization. Covid-19 poses a big challenge to colleges and universities, which have had students queuing up to get work done, be it admissions, revaluation or any documentation. As colleges look at reopening academic sessions online, getting systems in place is now a priority.