Avail free MBA application forms on Shiksha.com

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Education portal Shiksha.com on Thursday launched a free, common application form to help students apply to multiple institutions from a single platform to pursue a master of business administration (MBA) course.

The company has tied-up with 14 institutes for the service.

"This is a new platform which will enable students to have a common e-form for applying to MBA institutes," said Prakash Sangam, senior vice president and business head, Shiksha.com.

At present, there is no common admission form or platform, which can be used to apply to colleges offering MBA courses.

"Around 70 per cent of information required in all the admission form is common. The student needs to create a profile in the website and provide the 70 per cent information," Sangam told IANS.

After creating the profile the students will have to provide specific information as required by the college they are applying to.

According to Sangam, the service is free for the students as well as the institutes and that the application fees will be directly transferred to the colleges' accounts.

"Currently 14 MBA institutes have joined the platform. We expect 100 more institutes to join the new application by the year-end," Sangam said.

The company said that the application can also be used later on for the under-graduate courses.

The company did not reveal the development cost of the new application, but said it used existing facilities and manpower to develop the new platform.

The firm said it will focus on advertisements and data services to bring in the revenue.

"We provide specific services like advertisement and providing data on students' preferences for various courses. The education sector gives the largest number of advertisements in the print medium and we hope to shift some of the ads on to our website."

Shiksha.com was launched in 2008 and attracts one million visits per month and reported annual revenue to the tune of Rs.60 million in 2010-11 with a growth of 120 per cent.

The firm is a part of Info Edge India, which owns other website brands such as Naukri.com, Jeevansathi.com and 99acres.com.