NU to digitize academic records since 1950

Nagpur: Alumni of Nagpur University need not travel to city every time they want their academic records or transcripts. The exam section has now decided to digitalize and upload the documents on a cloud server to provide easy access to applicants and also preserve them.
This is in addition to online degrees being provided in collaboration with National Depository Securities Ltd. The records were getting ruined beside posing space problems. In phased manner, all exam data like tabulation register, mark sheets, forms will be available online. Students outside the city will be able to access them by paying online.

Director, Board of Examinations and Evaluation Neeraj Khaty told TOI that the university is planning to start the digitalization work by March next year.

Khaty said exam data of students of last eight years is already online and the NU is taking services of in-house Inter-Institutional Computer Centre (IICC) and private agency Promarc Private Ltd.

The director said the need was felt as the records were either decaying or getting destroyed. “Documents pertaining to 2005 and preceding years have worn out and need to be handled delicately,” he said. The project would be implemented in a phased manner. In the first phase, documents from 2001 to 2010 will be converted into digital records.

Earlier, the NU had planned to start first phase from 2003-2016. In second, documents from 1976-2002 would be taken up while in last phase, data from 1950-1975 would be taken up.

The NU will be inviting tenders for the same as the cloud server would be hosted by a third party.

Talking about benefits, Khaty said the online records would be accessible to students after making a payment. “They may not need to travel every time they need any documents. The mark sheets would be made available after accepting a fee while transcripts services too would be provided online. This will largely help alumni who have moved out of the city or the country and have to depend on friends or relatives to access the documents,” he said.

Khaty added that companies or employers too would be given access to documents after getting consent from students. “Verification of educational certificates would be done online and we will provide a link to the company’s mailbox,” he said.

Vice-chancellor SP Kane said manuscripts in the university libraries too would be digitized as they were getting damaged even with a simple touch.