University Vice-Chancellor Chandra Krishnamurthy said that the conventional system of education is heavily dependent on infrastructure (read classrooms and institutes) and fixed hours of study. “But we need to understand that social and economic constraints, particularly in the case of women, are factors that dissuade them from pursuing any form of higher education. Our project aims at removing such deterrents,” she said.

Accordingly, the pilot project to be launched around January 23 will initially train candidates in examinations like GRE, CAT and other common entrance tests.

“The education offered will now have a contemporary content and will do away the need to physically visit educational institutions,” Krishnamurthy added.

The university will collaborate with several industry representatives for the programme like Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL).

An ecosystem, said Krishnamurthy, comprising HP Labs as research partners, ATOM technologies as development partners, IPTL as propagation partners and ADC Krone as infrastructure support partners were identified after the idea was conceptualised around eight months back. Further, the university has signed several memorandum of understandings with SUN Microsystems for collaboration with IT and related services and with INTEL for partnership in educational technology.

While HP Labs (Bangalore) will set up an edu-centre for promotion of e-learning in technology-based courses, the Pay Phone Welfare Association (PPWA) will provide the students with payphones in the absence of mobiles.

“The edu-centre will help in developing projects by giving facility for capturing, storing and editing, using multimedia in educational processes made available over LAN to students on an on-demand basis,” Krishnamurthy said.

So how will the system work? The university will provide the content for examination which will be sent to the candidate’s house and will conduct the examination on phone. The material will also be available on the university’s website. For those who don’t have mobiles, PPWA will assist by providing public telephones, a number of them wherever required, and the set-up could be in the form of a cyber café. “Students will be asked questions on the phone which they will have to answer within a specific time limit. There will be no written test,” said Krishnamurthy.

Once the pilot project is initiated, SNDT will also conduct a “data search” as to which courses or tests students would like to be trained in, particularly in remote and tribal areas, and accordingly design them.

While the university will have a fee structure for the different courses, it will not charge students who are economically not well off. “Our primary aim is to reach education to the remotest areas. So naturally there will be people who can’t afford education. For them we can have freeships or scholarships as per the requirement,” emphasised the vice chancellor.