If your bank can open an account, approve a loan, and send your statement without printing anything, why is your university still asking for 5 copies of the same form? That’s the question.
Because right now, our campuses are stuck between two worlds. Online applications here, paper mountains there. We talk a lot about SDG 12. But walk into any admissions office in September, any department during exams, or any faculty board in promotion season and you see it: reams of paper, folders, stamps, signatures.
It’s not just admin. Students are in it too. Final year theses printed in triplicate and bound. Project work submitted online and in hard copy. Term papers handed in “for record.”
Assignments marked and dumped in a box. Then there are the promotion files. Six copies. Bound. Delivered by hand. For what? Banks figured this out years ago. Go digital, cut waste, make things traceable. Universities can do the same. And they have to.
The reality on the ground, and what we gain by changing
Let’s be honest about how we work now. Yes, most schools have a portal. You apply online. Pay fees on mobile money. After that it’s 1999 again. Course forms printed. Exam scripts printed. Attendance sheets printed. Theses printed and stored in a basement.
Projects printed because “the external wants a copy.” Term papers and assignments printed, marked in red pen, then filed and forgotten. Board minutes printed. Promotion dossiers printed. A mid-sized campus is likely burning through 2 million+ sheets a year.
That’s cash, storage space, and trees. But the bigger damage is the message it sends: “Do as we say, not as we do.” In a country where trust in institutions is already low, that matters. Other places have moved. Some countries in the region now run admissions, fees, and transcripts fully on phones.
Students submit theses and assignments online, no printing. Other governments made “paperless” a requirement and put degrees on national digital platforms. In more advanced systems, universities report paper use every year and issue digital certificates. They didn’t do it to “be green.” They did it because it’s cheaper, faster, and it looks credible.
So, what do we get if we go circular? Everyone. For the university: Less spent on printing, couriers, and storage rooms full of old files. Audits get faster when you can search instead of dig. For faculty: Upload your promotion file once. One portal. Digital signatures. No running around. And mark assignments and projects online instead of carrying home 500 scripts.
For admin: Workflows actually move. You can track who approved what. Student records, theses, and projects don’t “get missing. ”For students: Submit your term paper, assignment, project, and thesis from your laptop. Get feedback quicker. Get transcripts in hours, not weeks.
No more printing 3 copies of a project to beat a deadline. For the campus: Less waste in bins. Cleaner offices. Shorter queues at the photocopy shop in exam season. For reputation: Prospective students notice. “Submit everything online. Instant transcripts. Digital thesis library.”
In a competitive market, that’s an edge. For the country: Universities train the people who will run government and business. If they learn resource efficiency here, they carry it forward. Less paper also means less pressure on waste systems. Small, but real, for our climate goals.
Who needs to push this
Goodwill won’t do it. The regulator and Ministry have to step in, the same way the central bank forced banks to go digital. First, make digital the default. Admissions, registration, exams, assignments, projects, theses, transcripts. All online.
Paper only if you request it. Second, report it. Every institution should publish annual paper use and % of services online. Let students and parents compare. Third, fix the big paper traps. Accept one digital dossier for promotions.
Accept digital theses and projects with e-signatures. Stop making lecturers and students print to meet a rule. Tie part of government funding to compliance. Fourth, fund the basics. You can’t go paperless with bad WiFi. Treat campus internet, servers, and plagiarism software like roads and electricity. Core infrastructure.
Final Word
Banks didn’t go paperless for trees. They did it because it made sense and because someone set the standard. We’re at that point now. We can’t teach sustainability and then collect 2000 printed assignments.
We can’t ask students to care about the environment while making them print 3 copies of a thesis for a shelf. If a bank can run on your phone, and a finance house can track a green bond online, our universities can take a project submission online. The tech is here. The benefits are clear. What’s missing is the decision. So let’s stop printing. And start leading.
By Dr. Ebenezer Arthur Duncan
The writer is a lecturer at University of Professional Studies, Marketing Department
