Bhubaneswar, Jan. 5: The University Grants Commission (UGC) has asked all universities to ensure they have an online admission system in place from the next academic session.

In a letter to the vice-chancellors of various universities, UGC chairman Ved Prakash has issued directions to put in place an online admission system for all courses and sought details of the progress made by them.

"Establishing an online admission system will not only ensure greater efficiency but also promote transparency in the functioning of the institutions, besides helping students and parents in making informed choices," Prakash said in his letter.

The aim is also to expedite the admission process, bring in transparency and create a database. The system would also emphasise a paperless admission process.

While Utkal University, Sambalpur University and Ravenshaw University already have the online admission system in place, some universities are still considering whether to implement it.

Utkal University introduced the online admission process in 2011. Initially, it also allowed the candidates to apply offline. But for the past three years, the varsity has made the process solely online and there are no complaints.

Officials at 4u Software Solutions, which has been successfully implementing the e-admission programme at Utkal University for the past five years, said going online saved a lot of money both for the varsities and the students.

"The varsities can save the money that they used for printing admission forms and students can save money and time because they do not have to visit banks for challans. The costs for each university to go online comes around Rs 2 lakh per session and this is quite affordable," said CEO of the firm Chandrashekhar Biswal.

Following the UGC notice, the firm has already received queries from various universities, including North Odisha University and Berhampur University for online admissions.

Padmaja Mishra, officer on special duty for the recently-established Ramadevi Women's University, speaking to The Telegraph said: "We have not yet decided about completely going online. The matter will be discussed in the next postgraduate council meeting."

"It is extremely important to choose the right service provider and we are now looking for people who have already worked on online admissions and have faced the real-time problems so that they can offer solutions accordingly. We will like to have it outsourced to those who can provide us hassle-free solutions at an affordable price," said a senior official of North Odisha University.