The Cochin University of Science and Technology (Cusat) received a record number of applications and also revenues this year for its Common Admission Test (CAT-2012) for B.Tech and Post-Graduate courses.
For a total of 1060 B.Tech seats and 440 seats in other courses, a total of 39,500 students registered for CAT this year. Last year it was 34,000 and in 2010, 32,000.
The revenue generated this year was Rs3.75 crore as against Rs3.24 crore in 2011 and Rs2.94 crore in 2010. This achievement despite the varsity facing technical snags while introducing an open-source software developed by the university and using the varsity’s own server for the first time.
“It functioned when we tested with data of 5,000 students, but when the database grew in the implementation stage, it took a long time for students to access the data, resulting in long queues. But after a few days, this was rectified,” said an official.
For the first time, the varsity also successfully introduced fee payments by credit and debit card and a total of 10,000 students made use of this facility.
Last year, the university had uploaded photos of students and this year the facility was offered to students themselves and a whopping 34,000 students made use of this provision.
“This was a big saving for the varsity. Last year, we had to spend 890 man days for uploading the photos alone,” said the official.