Streamlining academic activities

College campuses will soon stop being free territories. In an effort to bring in transparency and accountability, some colleges in the City have installed biometric
systems on their campuses.

This system is first being introduced for the staff and will soon be extended to cover the students as well. It helps to do away with a lot of monotonous manual work.

Metrolife interacted with a few college management to understand the benefits of such a system.

It was the location of the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) in
Nagarbhavi that prompted the management of the college to introduce the biometric system on its campus.

And being a residential college, the management says that it couldn’t be more useful. The premier law school plans to extend the system to cover the students as well. Each member of the faculty of NLSIU had to get their fingers scanned. This is fed into the system against the respective code.

Prof Dr R Venkata Rao says, “This system ensures a certain amount of accountability and transparency. It is foolproof and can’t be tampered with. There are about 140 faculty members and this system covers them all.”

   Baba, a staff of NLSIU says, “Most of the staff work on a shift basis and this system keeps a tab them. The system is checked and the attendance is calibrated at the end of the day.”

The Mount Carmel Pre-University College introduced a biometric system six years ago only for the faculty members. Smitha Paul, faculty with the electronics department of the college, says, “This system indirectly instills a sense of fear in the faculty and prevents them from slipping into a lethargic mode. The faculty members make it a point to get to college in time.”

Kristu Jayanti College depends on an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP),
an online system, for all its campus activities, including the faculty and the students’ attendance. Initiated by the college two years ago, the system has dedicated portals through which the office staff, students and parents interact, to avoid unnecessary bottlenecks.

Fr Augustine, head of department of computer science, feels this system helps the management streamline the entire academic activity and makes each stakeholder responsible for what they are doing. “The ERP solution helps disseminate information at the right time and ensures the involvement of those concerned, with respect to the progress of a student.”

Augustine adds, “We depend on the system, which is capable of scheduling of classes, marking and monitoring of student attendance, generating the leave record and chalking out the academic calendar.”

Prof Bino, the technical head, campus solution, faculty in electronics has played an integral part in developing the ERP. He says, “This system ensures a transparency among its stakeholders, which in turn enhances productivity and makes the institution competent to maintain standards of higher education.”

The students of Kristu Jayanti College find ERP useful and easy to navigate. Giddiquie Nada, a student, observes, “The system helps know the attendance and marks scored in all the exams. The system offers a self-service module through which one can schedule one’s day-to-day activities and plan the things in advance.”