Relaunched MSU website needs another launch

The poorly maintained website has old information
Devanshi Joshi. Vadodara/DNA
Wednesday, November 26, 2008

It may be the Internet age, but some officials at Vadodaras MS University are blissfully unaware that the varsitys website is outdated and ill-maintained. The sorry state of the site makes it difficult to even get basic updates about the universitys functioning. According to the homepage, nearly 35,000 students are enrolled at the university, which is one of the best known in Gujarat. Most of these students, especially the large base of foreign ones, prefer to gain access to academic and extracurricular information via the internet. However, a number of hyperlinks lead to dead or inaccessible pages, and of the ones that do open, many have incomplete information. Foreign student advisor at MSU, Sharad Bansal accedes that, “If the website is not functioning properly, it would be difficult for students to access information.” However, he is quick to shrug off the blame. “The technical department is responsible for the website. I am not aware about its working,” he says. MSUs website, www.msubaroda.ac.in, had been re-launched last year, with new features, but is not being updated regularly. The site still shows results of the last academic year and exam dates have not been updated, either. This is despite internal exams currently being conducted in a number of departments, with others scheduled to hold their exams in the coming months.In addition, the site does not offer any academic information, and only minimal details regarding the courses offered.Ramesh Goyal, at the start of his term as university vice chancellor, had assured the proper functioning of the website. But the situation remains largely unchanged in the roughly eight months since then. When asked about it, he said, “I admit the website is functioning at a less than optimal level. I have talked to the universitys technical department, who are working on the universitys website. We plan to re-launch it soon, with the latest updates.”To make matters worse, the contacts page of the site also has very limited information. Neither does it mention whom to contact in case of complaints or queries.