Punjab colleges get 160,000+ online admission applications

More than 160,000 online applications have been received for intermediate admissions to government colleges across Punjab, with female students accounting for 68 per cent of the total applications.

The applications have been submitted through the Online College Admission System (OCAS), developed by the Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) in collaboration with the Higher Education Department Punjab.

Of the total applications, more than 109,000 were submitted by female students, while around 51,000 came from male students. This means nearly two out of every three applicants are female.

FA and ICS emerged as the most popular study programmes, receiving around 57,000 and 54,000 applications respectively. Together, the two programmes account for about 69 per cent of all applications. FSc Pre-Medical ranked third with around 28,000 applications.

Female participation was particularly strong in these programmes. Girls accounted for 81 per cent of Pre-Medical applications, 74 per cent of FA applications and 61 per cent of ICS applications.

Among technical programmes, female students made up 65 per cent of FA IT applicants. Male students, however, were more prominent in DIT and DCom programmes.

PITB Chairman Faisal Yousaf said the online system had helped eliminate long queues and the difficulties associated with manual admissions. He said the system was also providing the government with reliable education data to support better policy-making.

Students can submit their applications through the OCAS portal. The system also allows admission fees to be paid through mobile banking, ATMs, cards, TCS and branchless banking following its integration with PayZen.