App OCAS: 246,544 Online Applications Reach 651 Punjab Colleges

Ut of 716 public colleges registered for online admission,649 colleges across Punjab have received 245,806 applications since the launch of admission cycle 2017 on July 27 through Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) Online College Admissions System (OCAS)

LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Aug, 2017 ) : Out of 716 public colleges registered for online admission,649 colleges across Punjab have received 245,806 applications since the launch of admission cycle 2017 on July 27 through Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) Online College Admissions System (OCAS).

Punjab Information Technology BoardThe OCAS was developed for Higher Education Department (HED) of Punjab for processing intermediate admissions applications for their FA, FSC, ICS programmes, said a PITB spokesman.

OCAS had processed almost one million applications during the past few years. For cycle 2017 among 246,544 online admission applications, 82,062 applications were submitted online while 164,482 were uploaded in the system by the respective colleges.

Dr Umar Saif, the founding Vice Chancellor Information Technology University (ITU) Punjab, Chairman PITB and Advisor to CM Punjab observed that the initiative has helped in improving and formulating the education policy.This was through monitoring of trending interest in various subjects and to establish new institutions and assessing the required needs including manpower.

"It has also enhanced the efficiency and ensured transparency, eliminated the hazard of long queues and facilitated the youth to search online the choice of subjects and college by applying from home".

Free of cost availability of college brochures and online admission forms is an added feature of the system while it has considerably reduced the visits of students and their parents to colleges, ensuring timely compilation of applications and merit list.

According to monitoring of OCAS Dash board, till to date applications with gender and programme segregation recorded 55,310 applications for ICS (59% male-41 % female), 51,267 for Fsc Pre Medical (71 % female-29 % male), 73,829 for FA (64 % female-36 % male), 38,650 for Fsc Pre Engineering (68 % male- 32 % female), 18,677 for ICom (69 % male-31 % female), 5,547 for D Com (92 % male-8 % female) and 3,360 for General Science (64 % male-36 % female).

The salient features of the system include 24/7 access, applying from any place with internet access, tracking admissions application status via college website, integration with BISE results, minimizing data entry and reduction of errors, he added. APP/nam/swf/anm