Undergraduate students of Calcutta University (CU) could be spared the trouble of filling up forms to register for BA, B.Sc and B.Com examinations from next year.

Instead of students having to collect forms, fill them up and give them back along with the examination fees, the onus will be on colleges to send the enrolment details of their students to the university.

The idea is to make the process of registration for examinations simpler and minimise errors. If an error creeps into an examination form, the student’s admit card, too, will contain inaccurate information.

“The proposal is still under the university’s consideration. It aims to make the examination process easier so that chances of mistakes in admit cards are reduced,” said Onkar Sadhan Adhikari, the controller of examinations at CU.

It is not as if colleges will be made to sweat to spare the examinees. The university will supply a new set of forms to the colleges with space for the candidates’ names and a series of boxes that only have to be ticked.

“The format has yet to be finalised, but we hope to introduce the new system next year,” an official said.

The university has apparently realised that the system being followed all these years is not only cumbersome, but also increases the possibility of errors.

“We noticed that students do not read the examination forms properly and give incorrect information when filling them up. For instance, a standard form contains a list of abbreviations of subjects. Some students make incorrect choices and don’t realise it until it is too late. For instance, a student of philosophy might be confused by the similar abbreviation for physics and tick on the wrong subject in the examination form,” the official said.

Colleges, too, seldom rectify such errors before sending the forms back to the university. Students realise their mistake only after receiving their admit cards.

“When a student receives an admit card with the wrong subjects mentioned, it puts him/her and the university in trouble,” the official said.

Some students are, of course, careless out of habit and even misspell their names. Sometimes, they forget to mention vital information like their addresses.