ABU DHABI: Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC) on Tuesday launched the first and second phases of its online scholarship administration system.

Held by ADEC in Abu Dhabi, the launching ceremony was attended by the Director General of ADEC Dr. Mugheer Khamis Al Khaili; ADEC?s Executive Director of Support Services Salem Al Sayari; Assistant Secretary-General of the Public Administration Sector at the General Secretariat of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council, Ali Rashed Al Ketbi; Director General of Abu Dhabi Systems & Information Centre (ADSIC) Rashed Lahej Al Mansoori and members of ADEC Scholarship Committee.

Director General of ADEC Dr. Mugheer Khamis Al Khaili said that the new online scholarship administration system comes in line with ADEC strategic goals designed for providing high quality services and using latest ICT applications in facilitating communication between ADEC staff, the teaching and administrative staff, students and scholars.

"Scholarship application processing time is expected to decrease by 40%, which would enhance efficiency. This will also help save 90% of paperwork, which comes in line with Abu Dhabi Government policy aiming to create paperless work environment," Dr. Al Khaili added.

"Simplifying scholarship-related procedures and processes, the new system enables better communication with students who can submit and track their applications online with no need to attend personally," Dr. Al Khaili pointed out.

"The new solution provides a self service portal to monitor processes and applications and directly communicate online with students. Students are also allowed to submit, withdraw, manage and follow up applications, add practical experience and credentials information and upload documents. Moreover, the system will allow the maintenance and evaluation of applications and obtaining approvals online in a transparent way," the Director General added.

Assistant Secretary-General of the Public Administration Sector Ali Rashed Al Ketbi said that the online scholarship system helps students on 3 levels, pre-registration level which gives them the opportunity to easily access all necessary information regarding available scholarships in a very transparent way, 2nd level helps support students during the scholarship time in case they face any difficulties and assists ADEC to access all necessary data in order to intervene and support the students when necessary, and 3rd level is in relation between the university, the student and ADEC whereby ADEC could plan properly the employment strategy set by Abu Dhabi government and better plan the scholarship policy to serve the employment needs of Abu Dhabi.

Director General of Abu Dhabi Systems & Information Centre (ADSIC) Rashed Lahej Al Mansoori pointed out that Abu Dhabi government have made great leaps in automating several key services which means easy access from the public saving time and resources such as the case of today?s announcement the online scholarship system. This system is set to serve a big section of Abu Dhabi citizens and their children by providing them with state of the art online services with accurate and instant information key to their decision making and of such importance to the economic development of the emirate and its prosperity. This service is also equipped to provide accurate information throughout the course of the student?s scholarship not just for registration purposes which makes it a complete online service useful to both student and government.

ADEC?s Division Manager, Guidance and Scholarship Mona Majed Al Mansoori said that the new system provides an end to end platform to manage the student scholarship management system. "Students are no longer required to physically visit ADEC offices for submissions and follow up since correspondence, document submission and final results have already been automated," she added.

During the ceremony, ADEC honoured the team members who exerted tremendous efforts for nine months in order to develop and test the system.

Copyright Emirates News Agency (WAM) 2012.