Imagine meeting an old friend all of a sudden, you start to reminisce about your college days and then you ponder upon the thoughts of how you got into the college.
The long queue in which you had to wait for hours, repressing the anxiety when submitting the documents by hoping everything would go smoothly. It does not take long for the misery to creep in when the staff handling your transcripts informs you curtly that something is missing, that you need an additional document, or that there is something wrong with one of the forms you had filled up.
Quite frustrating experience, right?
Despite your several attempts to make sure that all the required documents are given during the enrollment, the admin points out that there is something untoward. Another important aspect of college admission that is inescapable is the procedural delay. The number of days to ensure that you had made it on the list of students who were to be enrolled in the college was determined by the marks you got. Albeit a difficult task but to take several days or even weeks can cause untold despair to the learners who are eager to begin their higher education from the preferred college.
The admission process was especially challenging for those students who wanted to pursue a course from a college or university which was out of their city, one mistake would have meant for them to go back home and retrieve whatever was required.
J.E.B. Spredemann once said-
“The first step to solving your problem is admitting that you have one.”
As institutions slowly started to admit that they need a change, digitization in education took place. Thanks to the digital revolution which has taken over almost all the aspects of our lives, admissions in colleges and universities have also been greatly impacted by it in a positive way of course. By integrating e-learning it has facilitated education to be boundless and accessible to students across the globe without having to travel long distances.
Similarly, the admission process has also become less troublesome and the students are hugely benefited by it. Rather than spending time on protracted procedures of enrollment, learners can easily get on with their studies, while the educators can focus on their lesson delivery and course application.
The student admission system has gotten a lot better with automation making it clear about the particular problems which the colleges face and can effectively avoid. Let us take a look at those:
The traditional model of admissions
For as long as we can remember whatever procedure it is, be it applied to an organization, inquiry to an institute, or registering a complaint against a faulty operation all of it is carried out through paper. The admission forms in colleges are the first thing that you need to fill, following which a long procedure is undertaken. Carrying out this process is so time-consuming that there are times when several students miss out on the deadline. This also causes tension and stress for those who had begun to look for enrolling at a later date due to prior commitments. They stand to lose a year as there are no colleges who are receiving any more applications, that would simply not be the case if the colleges avail online admission system.
Error-ridden procedures
There have been many instances when a student suffered because of an error in the admission process, curtailing it could be easy if the admission forms of colleges are made to be available online. With customizable application features, the students could easily fill in their information that is required and submit it online without having to go through any difficulties faced during in-person admission.
The integrated notification features such as email, SMS alerts, and messaging via smartphones could help in determining the final admission status of the learners at any given point.
Prolonged duration to determine a merit list
As mentioned before the merit list is prepared and announced in a time-consuming manner making the admission process even more dire and tedious. Colleges and universities can quite easily avoid this process by simply customizing test scores and allotting weightage for admissions and scholarships as per the standardized rules and regulations of the institute.
Manual administrative workload
The amount of students taking admissions, submitting their crucial documents & certificates, and then going through them to determine who is eligible for the course and then concluding the entire process within the stipulated date and time is challenging. Despite having a team of experienced staff the time and effort that takes to carry out the task is multiplied if there is more influx of students around the deadline. With the help of cloud-based admission software, educational institutes can reap the benefits of executing the entire process in reduced time and accurate decision-making.
Inability to achieve transparent data
It takes a long time to get student data, which causes the educators to struggling in terms of making informed decisions at a time when it is required the most. Automated software can solve this problem with the help of dynamic reports and analytics, which also helps the educator to track it in real-time and accordingly make decisions.
Inefficient maintenance of records
It is significant to maintain student data, maintaining it manually takes a lot of effort and time, regular inspection of it to check the safe-keeping is equally important. It is also susceptible to gradual decay and theft, but shifting to digital restoring of data will ensure no such uncertainties. Additionally, it will not only reduce cost but also increase the efficiency of student data management.
In conclusion
Just a decade ago students had to go through such a troubling procedure for enrolling themselves in college or university. Administering the entire process manually took an inordinate amount of time and effort, on top of that a single mistake led to the delay and indicated to begin the whole process all over again.
But educational institutes can save themselves from all the trouble by carrying out the administrative process digitally such as conducting an admission test through an online examination system.
One of the biggest advantages of going online is the assurance of efficiency and executing tasks smoothly
