Cross Platform request using PERL

my $xml = <<"GENERATE_XML";
< gestddatainput >
< course >BE< /Course >
< stdname >TestStudent< /StdName >
< coursefee >350000< /CourseFee >
< /GeStdDataInput >
GENERATE_XML

my $length = length($xml);
my $ua = LWP::UserAgent->new(env_proxy => 1, keep_alive => 1, timeout =>45);
my $req = HTTP::Request->new(POST =>'http://studentrecords.com/getStduentData');
$req->content($xml);
$req->header('Connection' => 'close', 'Content-length' => $length,'Content-Type'=>'text/xml', charset=>'utf-8');
my $res = $ua->request($req);
my $response_data = $res->content;
my $ref;
eval {
$ref =  new XML::Smart($response_data);
};
if($@){
print STDERR "\n------- Student Response START----------";
print STDERR "\n". $response_data;
print STDERR "\n". $@;
print STDERR "\n------- Student Response END----------";
return "";
}
<.pre>