AU adopting biometric attendance for students

The AU administration has already floated its demand for the biometric machines on the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) The new system will be in place at the Institute of Professional Studies by the next fortnight, officials added.

In a first, students of Allahabad University (AU) will soon be punching in their attendance through a smart biometric system.

(In the second phase, the new attendance system will be extended to the students of the BA-LLB five-year integrated course.)

While the new system is being first set up at the Institute of Professional Studies (IPS) centre, it will be extended phased-wise to other departments of AU, said the varsity officials.

“We are switching to the biometric attendance system because the state government, which provides scholarships to students under different categories, needs to keep track of the students’ attendance. The online attendance will be sent to the government department concerned on a daily basis”, said public relation officer (PRO) Prof Jaya Kapoor.

The AU administration has already floated its demand for the biometric machines on the Government e-Marketplace (GeM)—a 100% government-owned and national public procurement portal—and is in the final stages of the procurement of the machines, which will be first installed at the IPS centre. The new system will be in place by the next fortnight, the officials added.

They said in the second phase the new attendance system will be extended to the students of the BA-LLB five-year integrated course.

The administration, meanwhile, is mulling over the modalities that would have to be for the students of undergraduate courses as all attend classes in three separate departments.

“We are still mulling over the issue as to how to record the attendance of the UG students. One of the suggestions in a meeting was that these machines could be installed at places where the students can register their attendance soon as they enter the campus”, said a senior faculty member of AU.

However, some of the teachers of AU are uncertain about the success of the system as the numbers of students at AU is quite high (around 23000 students) and fear that the machines would have to be constantly monitored.