The Cochin University of Science and Technology (Cusat) has very little time left to go digital.
A latest directive from the University Grants Commission (UGC) has made it clear that all varsities will have to switch over to the digital mode to ensure transparency in monetary transactions. Senior varsity officials said that efforts to switch to the digital mode were yet to catch up on the campus. Except for a few awareness campaigns involving the NSS unit, no concrete measures had been initiated to make all transactions online, they said.
The UGC directive said that the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) had directed all higher educational institutions to adopt digital modes of payment (namely online IMPS/BHIM/debit cards/AEPS) under the National Digital Payments Mission (NDPM).
The commission had also issued an advisory to universities that all receipts and payments related to the functioning of the institutions (student fee, exam fee, vendor payments, salary/wage payments, etc.) shall be made only through online or digital modes. Digital mode should be used for transactions for all students’ services in the hostel. All canteens and business establishments on the campus may be encouraged to use only digital modes for their receipts and payments, it said.
Cusat officials pointed out that they would have to train all administrators, students, agencies or vendors running the canteens and other business establishments on the campus in using BHIM app by linking their bank accounts with mobile number and Aadhaar number.
The varsity will have to prepare an action plan on switching over to the digital payment mode besides identifying all transactions being carried out in cash now, and find ways for replacing them with digital modes from the next academic year. The data for the action plan should include details related to points of financial transaction, total number of students, vendors and others on the campus, number of likely transactions per month and total digital transactions to be achieved in 2017-18.
A nodal officer has to be appointed in the university to implement the digital initiatives in a time-bound manner.
The varsity will also have to submit a monthly report to the UGC, which would be forwarded to the MHRD.