E-Governance in Higher Education: Issues & Challenges

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1 E-Governance in Higher Education: Issues & Challenges Department of Information Technology Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University Rajouri Jammu & Kashmir Abstract: The advent of Internet can be considered as one of the biggest innovations in the modern world. The impact of the Internet in making of lives easy has been tremendous. With each passing day our expectation from our society, our government and our institutions is on the rise. E-Governance is one much mechanism that can help societies, governments and institutions to become more efficient in the delivery of services. Despite it nascent stage E-Governance has been able to make impressive achievements in the delivery of services on one hand and image of the institutions on the other. Higher education institutions are making sincere efforts to embrace e-governance into their systems for effective delivery of services to all the stakeholders. However, their domain of operation, issues and challenges are quite different from that of other governmental organizations. In this paper we try to explore the approach, phases and issues & challenges faced by an institution of higher learning in implementation of an e-governance system right from the scratch. Keywords: E-Governance, higher education, BGSB University I. Introduction Electronic governance or E-Governance is the use of information and communication technologies in organizations to provide user services, to improve work efficiency and to promote democratic values; as well as a regulatory framework that facilitates information intensive initiatives and fosters the knowledge society. An e-governance system provides a number of advantages over the conventional or manual system. Organizations use E-Governance as a platform for efficient, transparent and timely delivery of services to all the stakeholders. In essence the purpose of E-Governance is to bring transparency and efficiency in the working of an organization. This urge for transparency and efficiency is derived by the demand of the ever increasing aspirations of the information age. Organizations, whether government or public, around the globe have been feeling immense pressure to reform the way they work and deliver as per the aspirations of public in general and all the stakeholders in particular. This requires ways and means for providing the stakeholders with all the required information and knowledge on one hand and tuning the way of working by way of providing for more efficient and cost effective services on the other [1]. Use of E-Governance in India is not a new phenomenon and has come of age [2]. Organizations throughout the length and breadth of the country have been utilizing technology in every aspect of the work environment, i.e., for reaching out to rural areas, for promoting transparency and accountability, to enable swift delivery of information and services and much more. E-Governance is different from a common computer based system because it is not just about hardware and software but it encompasses a whole lot of entities. It is about people and processes [2]. A successful E- Governance system has always to be in evolution to cater to the changing requirements of the stakeholders. The success of any E-Governance project depends upon the way it is perceived by the target audience. There are a number of success stories of efficient planning, execution and implementation of E-Governance systems from a diverse set of domains. Each sector or domain has some inherent characteristics, challenges and opportunities. This means that there is no universal definition or model that fits all. For example, an E- Governance system for a public distribution system of a government department may not fit for a higher education institution. This can be attributed to the varying goals, issues and challenges in both the systems. Higher education institutions serve to a completely different set of entities. The stakeholders are expected to be well educated, literate, tech savvy and opinion leaders. They are not just consumers or common citizens. 293

2 Moreover the target audience is diverse both in terms of expectations and knowledge level. Thus it becomes quite difficult for planners to conceive an all encompassing model for effective implementation of E- Governance in a higher education institution. In this paper we take a real life example and try to understand various aspects that can lead to successful implementation of an E-Governance system in a University that is just ten years old. II. Development of an E-Governance System The requirements and expectation from an E-Governance system vary as per the domain of operation of the proposed E-Governance system. Despite that the panning, execution and deployment of an E-Governance system can be perceived as comprising of a set of phases. These phases should not be considered as hard boundaries with clear cut separation but a general guideline which can be tuned according to the requirements. In addition, these phases can be treated as fixed in numbers but they can be merged depending upon the presence state of automation and use of information and communication technology in the existing system. Generally, the development and deployment of an e-governance system for a higher education institution goes through the following phases [2]: Information: In this phase the goal is to be present on the web with the help of a website displaying static information. The information include introduction of the organization, it s aims and objectives, basic information about people and structure of the organization, information related to various activities and events, etc. The end user is not in a position to interact with the information providers. Interaction: In this phase the goal is to provide user with the specific information he may demand. This phase requires databases to support user queries and information needs. A university can be considered to be in this phase of e-governance if the system is capable of supporting activities like individual student results and mark sheets, payslips of individual staff members, syllabi of specific courses, forms and formats as per user requirements, specific guidelines and policies, minutes of meetings of academic bodies, etc. Transaction: In this phase the goal is to provide a mechanism where user can interact with the system without need to visit any office personally. This phase requires integration of external systems like payment gateway with the existing system. A university can be considered to be in this phase if the system is capable of supporting activities like online admissions and application forms, support for user initiated editing and updation of faculty profiles, online fee payments, correction in student profiles, feedbacks, status tracking, etc. Transformation: When all information systems are integrated and the user can get all type of services on a virtual platform from a single point of delivery, the e-governance system can be said to be in this phase. This phase requires information and data exchange between different sections or department of an organization. A university can be considered to be in this phase if the system is capable of supporting all major activities and operations through a single system. In this phase the systems should offer facilities like online file processing and tracking, online NOCs (no objection certificates), integrated reports, etc. III. E-Governance in Universities A. Required Functionalities: From organizational point of view an E-Governance system is supposed to provide a number of functionalities. Some of these functionalities may be generic and may be required to be present all such system. Below we list some of the functionalities that are specific to universities [3]: 294 An exclusive student portal Multiple channels to access services from university Simplified process for submitting various applications and tracking the same e-payment facility for remitting various fees, dues, etc. Simplified process for accessing general services such as requests for certificates, verifications, etc. Simplified process for registering grievances against university services

3 Simplified access for viewing academic data B. Issues & Challenges: Issues & Challenges: As discussed earlier an E-Governance system is different from a routine computer based system in a number of ways. Therefore the issues and challenges faced by an organization for implementation of an effective E-Governance system are different. In addition, each organization has its own set of characteristics and thus it can be said that the issues and challenges one faces are also different even if they belong to same domain. The issues and challenges in implantation of an E- Governance are not of technology, machines or internet but of organizational policies and procedures [5]. Commonly an organization may face the following challenges while implementing e-governance in the Indian context [2]: Lack of Clarity of Objectives, Inadequacy of Funds, Dearth of talented workforce, Data Backlog, Change Management, Lack of Coordination among different departments Lack of will for information dissemination Rigid mindset to innovation and doing things differently Lack of technically superior connectivity Rigid Legal Framework Maintenance Challenge and Citizenry Readiness IV. E-Governance System for BGSB University: Shifting from manual to a computer based information system is resource intensive for any organization [4]. The younger the organization the easier it is. Though majority of the day-to-day activities and operations of the University are manual or at the most use some form of primitive automation, shifting from the existing system to a computer based integrated information (e-governance) system is not that costly. This can be attributed to the age of the University which has two folds advantage. On one side the manual records accumulated over a period of ten years may not take that much amount of resources and on the other side majority of the staff is computer savvy and ready to adopt and use a computer based information system. Keeping in view the present status of automation of operations of the University a planned approach has to be adopted to move from present state to fully functional e-governance system. A phased implementation with the following broad objective can be adopted: To facilitate a timely delivery of services and information availability to all the stake holders To provide a platform where involvement of all the stakeholders is ensured for decision making To transform the system into an extremely efficient, secure, transparent and result oriented one To facilitate the requisite technological support required for teaching and learning process To offer technological support to all the constituent administrative units of the system Phases of Implementation: These phases are indicative as no fixed boundaries can be drawn between these phases and each specific implementation can have tailor-made phases. As such in some cases activities listed in one phase may actually belong to another phase as per academic definitions. As per the existing status of the automation in the university Phase-I and Phase-II can be clubbed and can be referred to as Phase-I. Thus the entire e-governance system 295

4 Phase-I: This shall be the most important phase as the successful implementation of the entire e- Governance system shall be dependent entirely on the quality of automation acquired in this stage. The major tasks associated with this phase include: Upgradation of the University website: The present website needs complete overhauling in a number of ways. Some of the identified areas are: Detailed information about various schools, department, centres, colleges, hostels and various other sections of the University shall be provided. Profile of each faculty member including their research publications, research projects, etc. shall be made available. Profile of research scholars and students of each of the department can also be made available online on departmental pages. Facility for online applications for admissions to various courses of the university. Facility for online fee deposition. Automation of Various Operations of the University: All most all the major operations including admissions, examinations, registrations, finances, hostels, stores and purchases, etc, are manual. Even if computer is being used in almost all the departments, offices and sections of the university it is being used for word processing or at the most for number crunching using spreadsheets. Some of the identified areas include: Automation of student s registration process. Automation of examination system. This includes development of software for efficient management of various activities of examination system to make it efficient and transparent with necessary safeguards. Automation of payrolls and payments made by the university. Phase-II: Building upon the foundation of automation laid in the first phase the focus shall be on making the system interactive for the user. Some of the major tasks to be completed in this phase include: Dynamic updation of the University website: The content on the university website shift from administrator driven to user driven. Some of the identified areas are: The departments, schools and other constituents can update the content on their respective Webpages as per their requirements. Subject-wise syllabus shall be made available with all the amendments. Each faculty shall be able to update his profile as per his requirements but according to a standard format. This will bring uniformity in the profiles of each faculty member. Facility for online applications for admissions to various courses of the university. Facility for online fee deposition. On demand availability of operational details: Once the basic automation of major operations is over the next step is make required information available on demand. This includes individual marks cards, syllabus of individual subjects and courses, etc. Some of the identified areas include: Making available students profile on demand. Facilities for issuance of individual marks cards. Facilities for generation of fee receipts, bonafide certificates, etc. Facilities related to online scholarships, etc. Online Management of University Events: The University organizes various events like conferences, seminars, student s meets, annual day, etc. In majority of the cases participants reside outside the University. It may not be sometime possible or even efficient for concerned individuals to visit the University personally. Therefore online managements of such events can go a long way in making the process efficient and effective. Some of the identified areas include: Online registration of participants, issuance of invites, etc. Online fee deposition, etc. 296

5 Phase-III: Once the fundamental functional units are in place and working the focus shall be on making the system interactive for the user with data inputs from various functional units of the university and outside world. The outside world means, regulatory bodies like, UGC, AICTE, NCTE, etc., funding agencies like DBT, SERB, UGC, ICSSR, DeitY, etc., state agencies like MHRD, Social Welfare Department, etc. Some of the major tasks to be completed in this phase include: Online Documents: Some of the identified areas include: Online tendering Online NoCs, degree certificates, provisional certificates, etc. Online verification of documents and reports, etc. Status Tracking: The University deals in a number of activities which involves number of departments and section of the University. Sometimes agencies the University also become party to a particular process. Such processes need information and input from concerned sections. Thus it becomes important to integrate various systems together to accomplish this task. Some of the identified areas include: Online file tracking. Online status tracking for various documents like NoCs, tenders, degree certificates, etc. Online tracking of scholarship status, project funding status, etc. Online Recruitment: The University employs different types of people from time to time. This involves efforts of various departments and section of the University. The data has to be compiled manually which takes a lot of time and effort. Therefore online management of various activities related to recruitment can help in making the process efficient and effective. Some of the identified areas include: Online registration and fee deposition of potential candidates Online interview call letters Online interviews (if a person is not in a condition to attend the interview personally) V. Conclusions: A number of higher education institutions have benefited a lot from implementation of E-Governance systems. They have been able to make their processes transparent, convenient and efficient. But this comes with a cost. There are a number of issues and challenges. These challenges need to be addressed. In this changing world higher education institutions have to embrace the emerging trends and technologies to keep pace with the expectations of all the stakeholders. In this paper we identified some of the issues and challenges in planning, execution and implementation of an E-Governance system in a higher education institution. The earlier an institution implements an E-Governance system the easier and better it is for the institution. We also listed some of major activities and the phases in which these activities can be carried out. We listed some of the major E-Governance related initiatives for the identified institution and divided those activities in three different phases. It can be said that if the identified institution follows these general guidelines it may be able to plan, execute and implement an effective and efficient E-Governance system. References: [1] Dwivedi, S. K. and Bharti, A. K. E-Governance in India: Problems and Acceptability. Journal of Theoretical and Applied Information Technology, Vol. 17, No. 1, [2] Suri, G. and Kaur, S. A Study on E-Governance Initiatives in Punjab University. Gian Jyoti e-journal, Volume 3, Issue 2, 2013, pp [3] Shrivastva, A.K., Raizada, A.K. and Saxena, N. Role of e-governance to strengthen higher education system in India. IOSR Journal of Research & Method in Education, Vol. 4, No. 2, 2014, pp [4] Qadri, M.N. e-governance at University of Kashmir: Bringing Efficiency & Transparency. International Journal of Information and Computation Technology, Vol. 4, No. 2, 2014, pp [5] E-Governance Challenges, 297