Over 75% of University Students Want to Be Back at Campus for Better Engagement and Connect: CollPoll’s Survey

Bengaluru : CollPoll, a Mobile-first Digital Campus Platform, released the findings of the ‘Back to Safe Campus’ survey conducted in 23 campuses across 10 cities with more than 1300 students participating in the study. According to the findings, over 75% of the students want to return to campus while half of them miss in-person interactions. The survey is a part of the ‘Back to Safe Campus’ initiative by CollPoll, which is a step towards helping educational institutions across the country become contactless and smart by leveraging technology thereby enabling them to reopen their campuses in a safer way.

The findings also indicated that 45% of students preferred physical classrooms over online classes as compared to 30% of respondents who want to continue attending classes online as they found online learning to be super effective. Out of those who participated in the survey, a quarter of them considered the availability and support of professors as the most important factor in the online learning experience. Of the total respondents, 79% of university students in Pune are more eager to come back to the campus versus 77% of students in Jaipur and 70% of the students in Delhi NCR region respectively. Almost half of the respondents expect strong protocols to prevent COVID-19 transmission once they return to their campuses. Students belonging to premier institutions such as the D.Y. Patil Pratishthan Pune, IIHMR University in Jaipur, Swarrnim Startup & Innovation University in Gujarat, New Delhi Institute of Management, ISBR in Bengaluru among others participated in the survey.

With an aim to enable usage of critical technologies that are simple to implement, easy to use and ensure smooth collaboration between multiple stakeholders, CollPoll’s ‘Back to Safe Campus’ initiative is scheduled to run for the next 12 months. 100+ education institutions will adopt the ‘Back to Safe Campus’ suite that covers some of the need of the hour solutions such as elimination of the risk of COVID-19 transmission, automation of physical operations along with engagement of the student community including professors and parents. As part of the suite, CollPoll will enable a smooth and risk-free entry into campuses through auto-verification of COVID vaccination status, checking COVID history of community members and consent from parents about sending their wards back to the campus and hostels. The suite will empower campuses by automating more than 20 workflows thereby allowing contactless operations for services such as transportation, IT help desk, hostel services, campus facilities including the automation of hostel, mess and canteen operations. Seamless campus entry/exit movements will be now possible with an IVR based Parent/Warden approvals on gate pass and leaves along with real-time tracking due to RFID Card integration. CollPoll’s Campus Social Network will be leveraged for campus updates, online events, Q&As etc. in addition to the parent app that will provide e-notices and official communication with automated notifications.

Universities and college campuses are places where students live and study in close proximity to each other. They are also buzzing cultural hubs where students are brought together from cities around the country and the world. Recently, the foundations of this unique ecosystem have been impacted significantly by the rapid spread of the COVID-19 outbreak. According to a study published in the Asian Journal of Psychiatry, the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns haven’t been kind to the students, who were among the worst hit emotionally. Around 58% experienced a significant increase in their stress levels and severe deterioration in their emotions of anger, anxiety, loneliness, hopelessness, and happiness. But it’s not all doom and gloom. The higher education sector has withstood turbulent economic times in the past, and it will withstand them with the help of technology. In a digital age, universities and colleges are better placed today than ever to provide students with easy access to solutions that will help them return back to their campuses in a safe and secure way.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) collaborated with CollPoll to enable educational institutions to reopen campuses in a safer way through the “Back to Safe Campus” Initiative. CollPoll’s complete tech stack is built on and powered by AWS. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, by leveraging AWS, CollPoll was able to scale up immediately to meet the sudden rise in demand for Digital Campus solutions, and also added new functionality such as AI-proctoring for online examinations. AWS provides CollPoll with the ability to scale and manage its cloud-based digital infrastructure for more than 100,000 users while ensuring a seamless customer experience.

CollPoll was founded by Hemant Sahal to let stakeholders in educational institutions collaborate effectively. Since 2018, its focus has expanded to end-to-end automation of institutions far beyond the traditional ERPs. The company offers ERP for Administration, Learning Management System with Video Conferencing integration, AI-proctored Examinations, No-code Business Process Automation Engine for contactless & paperless campus, and Campus Social Network for digital engagement.

Supporting Quotes

Hemant Sahal, Founder and CEO, CollPoll

“The prolonged closure of campuses due to COVID-19 has caused many students to miss out on learning opportunities and social interactions which are essential for their overall development and wellbeing. With CollPoll’s ‘Back to Safe Campus’ initiative, progressive educational institutions can rapidly build capabilities assisted by technology to support the overall campus experience. Now is the time to plan and put the structures in place to welcome students back to the campus. We aim to impact 100,000+ users studying in Indian Higher Education institutions and empower campuses by being their long-term technology partner.”

Karan Kumar, Head, Additional Director – Information Technology, O.P. Jindal Global University

“In these unprecedented times, ensuring safety on campuses has been a major area of focus and concern for educational institutions. We are glad that we have not only made our operations contactless by automating several workflows but also digitally engaged students at JGU. CollPoll’s highly adaptive platform has surely helped us be prepared to provide students with a safe and engaging campus experience when they get back.”