Maharashtra government fast-tracks IUMS to improve education system

Intensive drubbing over not featuring in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) ratings for three consecutive years and the excessive delay in submitting results seems to have put the state government in action mode. The government intends to make amends in its education system and fast-track the implementation of an Integrated University Management System (IUMS). The government issued a notification in this regard on April 3.

The IUMS project envisages providing a web-enabled online platform for all the state universities. Under this project, the universities will be equipped with a strong backbone of information communications and technology to provide a seamless experience to students, faculty, university officials, employees, and affiliated colleges. 

An official from the state education department told DNA, “IUMS will speed up admissions, examinations, online assessment and results. It will help the government to keep a watch on the functioning of universities and put in place a robust governance structure for overall planning and coordination.” The official admitted that the IUMS is expected to curb blunders in paper correction and avoid inordinate delays in the declaration of results.

Domain groups will be constituted for each of the five verticals including students, faculty, college, academia and administration. Each of the domains will be headed by a senior functionary from the Maharashtra Information Technology Corporation (MahaIT) who will be expected to provide end-to-end solutions to 14 public universities in the state. These domain groups will recommend business process re-engineering steps for consideration of project monitoring and project steering committees. 

The project monitoring committee will be headed by the additional chief secretary of the higher and technical education department. MahaIT has also invited requests for proposal for the selection of system integrator.

The official said that the state universities will have to use IUMS which is being developed as a pan-state portal and not to take up development of any new portal for any of the modules for students, faculty, colleges, academics and administration.