Students in Sudan’s western Darfur region are complaining about the difficulty of applying electronically to Sudanese higher learning institutions for the academic year 2014 – 2015.

Sudan’s Ministry of Higher Education recently adopted an electronic application system at an official website to the Sudanese universities and other higher learning institutions this year.

Many students are challenged by poor Internet connections, frequent power outages, lack of access to a computer, and lack of application centres where they can be assisted.

Speaking to Ashrooq TV on Wednesday, several students living in rural areas said they did know the various steps of the electronic submission of application forms.

“I normally go to the centre at 6:00 a.m., but nobody comes to instruct me on how to apply and what the correct procedures are, especially the complexities of the financial procedures at a bank,” one student said.

“Application procedures were also very slow in admission centres set up at the University of Nyala,” he added.

For her part, the head of Nyala Admissions Centre Batoul Yehya Hamid admitted that there are obstacles facing students who apply electronically for this year.

She also attributed the problem to the weakness of Internet and power fluctuation in the town.

Admission centres in the state cannot cope with the large number of students applying to universities. “The number of students applying is over 20,000 students, so the fixed deadline is not enough,” she noted.

The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research set a deadline of 21 August for submission of application forms via its official website.

File photo: El Fasher University