University of Madras to digitise marksheets

[dwarakesh]

If you are an alumni of the University of Madras who has spent hours or even days struggling to get your marksheets verified or duplicate certificates issued, some relief could be near at hand – at least, if you are a recent graduate.

The university has decided to digitise marksheets for the approximately 6 lakh students who have passed through its portals between 1985 and 2005. The documents will be scanned and placed in electronic storage. "This should make it a quicker and easier process to search for the correct documents when people come to us for verification or duplicates, especially when they are applying for further studies or a new job. Until now, we had to do a manual search," Vice- Chancellor S. Ramachandran told presspersons here on Wednesday about the decision taken at a University Syndicate meeting last week.

To begin with, the University has begun digitising the records of students who graduated between 2000 and 2005, and will then continue to work backwards.

In another move to use technology to make life easier for its students, the University is in talks with the State Bank of India to allow fees to be paid through the bank's ATMs. This would especially be a boon for its almost 1.5 lakh distance education students, who will be able to use SBI's vast ATM network across the country. This scheme is expected to be finalised in the next one or two weeks, according to Dr. Ramachandran.