"Reinstate old system or resolve snags," urge NEP grads over challenges in ‘UUCMS’ portal

Suman Rodrigues , Vartha Bharati | 21-03-2024 | 18:30:00 IST

Bengaluru: Amid state government’s push to introduce State Education Policy (SEP) from the upcoming academic year, replacing the National Education Policy (NEP) revoked in 2023, College students in the city have voiced concerns over complications navigating through the Unified University and College Management System Portal (UUCMS). Many students also termed using the portal an ‘arduous task’.

Launched in 2021 alongside the introduction of the National Education Policy, ‘UUCMS’ was the first system of its kind in the country, aiming to centralize and streamline various activities of Higher Education Institutions, including admissions, examinations, degree awarding, class monitoring, lesson plans, and student attendance.

Despite three years since its rollout, students, college liaison officers and other stake-holders are reporting persistent issues and the lack of resolution regarding the portal. Shweth Babu, a fifth-semester Bcom student of a private college in the city, revealed that his results were displayed in the portal after several months. He faced challenges when approaching the university for assistance.

Sneha, a BA student from another private college, shared her experience of repeatedly visiting the university to get her English subject results displayed, which are still pending. She suggested that the “department should address issues or consider reverting to the old system.”

“The portal is really unoptimised, it is confusing to use, and not user-friendly. There were no developments in the portal despite three years of its launch, except for changing pictures of the Chief Minister and Education Minister,” stated another student from the state.

An Admission officer from a private college highlighted the complicated application process, stating that if encountered errors or server issue requires redoing the entire application, and correcting data entered incorrectly by the college is not an easy task.

“My pregnant wife had to run between different departments for the past four months to get her results displayed,” Police Constable, Shrinath

Shrinath, a Police Constable at the Superintendent of Police office Chikkaballapur, recalls how his wife Aruna, a Msc. Physics student (pass out) at the Bangalore University had to go through difficulties approaching different officials and departments in the university head office.

He further alleged the UUCMS nodal officer at the BU of committing negligence and stated, “My wife paid the exam fees on time, however her hall ticket was not generated. When inquired to the UUCMS nodal officer at BU, he cited the reason for server issues and instructed her and other students facing the same issues to the College and write exam and there was no requirement of Hall ticket. When students demanded the hall ticket, the nodal officer arranged for the hall tickets, and she wrote the exam. However when results were out it was showing absent. Which later displayed in the portal and she had passed the exam.”

Srikanth, a native of Bagepalli, a village bordering Andhra Pradesh, highlighted the hardships Aruna faced, including traveling 100-120 km from their hometown to Bengaluru multiple times over the past four months to address the issue. “I also went there to assist her, they were rude. Next time I went wearing my uniform, I never wanted to misuse my uniform, but this was the only way,” he said.

Meanwhile, KM Pradhan, ‘UUCMS’ Nodal Officer at Bangalore University, speaking to this correspondent, highlighted issues such as incorrect attendance entries by affiliated colleges, resulting in the withholding of results. “We have made the provision for students to apply for revaluation, they can also see the copy of the answer script.The department is charging the same amount for revaluation as it charged earlier before NEP or UUCMS was introduced,” he added.

Emphasizing the portal’s benefits and future potential, he stated, “It has a good vision and mission. Within a few years the portal will be perfect. Out of 100% students only 20 to 30% students faced problems. This portal is an asset to the student community and colleges, however the software development has to be tuned up to the requirements,we have regular meetings where we suggest the required changes.”

Subsequently, he also pointed out the issue of students incorrectly shading the bubbles in the OMR Sheet. “Even after repeated instructions to invigilators, principals, many students continue to make mistakes in their OMR sheet.”

“The portal needs to be decentralised…let the govt. immediately form a committee to rectify its issues,” says Former BCU Vice Chancellor

Former Bengaluru City University Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Japhet called for the formation of an expert committee to address and rectify the portal's issues.

Stressing the need for user-friendly modifications and transparency and also decentralization of the portal, he stated, “We should welcome the usage of technology, however the portal should be fine tuned and rectified taking into consideration the complaints raised by various stakeholders. While universities in the urban region have proper access to the internet, regions in North Karnataka have no proper internet facilities, which is why the portal needs to be decentralized.”

“We have no excuses to say that these modifications cannot be done, Karnataka is a leader in this, Bengaluru being the IT capital and silicon city of the country, the portal has to be modified to meet the requirements and has to be made more transparent, " he added.

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