What's plaguing Mumbai University?

The University of Mumbai has been making news for all the wrong reasons. Stake-holders may have hoped that the varsity’s administration system would improve with Sanjay Deshmukh taking charge as the Vice Chancellor, five months ago. The situation, however, has gone from bad to worse. Currently, the university is the second worst among the non-agricultural universities in the state, as far as delays in the declaration of exams results are concerned. 

On 6 October, more than 75,000 Third Year Bcom students  appeared for the Semester V exam. Some 4,000 students were not allotted exam centers and others were  alloted wrong centers. Besides, many colleges were unable to download the question paper, delaying the examination by over an hour.  

Last month, the University declared some 100 LLB students ‘failed’ because their colleges didn’t submit their practical marks on time and in some cases, erroneously marked them failed or absent at the practicals. While the University and colleges both tried to pass the buck, the students’ academic year was ruined.

The University continues to depend on the Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Ltd (MKCL) for exam-related work, though MKCL has goofed-up in the past. Deepak Wasave, Acting Controller of Examinations, held  MKCL responsible for “issuing hall tickets and erroneously printing wrong exam centers,” while MKCL blamed the university, stating it was “only responsible for generating hall tickets and had no hand in allotting exam centers”. 

The university erred in other areas too. Ekta Talwar, a final-year BA student from R D National College, was left running from pillar to post for over a month. She appeared for a paper on ‘International Economics’ on 29 April. When results were declared, Ekta’s mark sheet showed she had scored 01 marks in ‘Regional Economics’, a paper she never appeared for. She visited the Examination Department at least 10 times, in vain; she could not apply for the MBA programme of her choice. 
As per the University Circular, the academic year 2015-16 will have two terms: Term I (8 June to 21 October) and Term II (16 November to 30 April) with the winter break from 26 December to 1 January. Section 71 of the Maharashtra Universities Act (MU Act), 1994, makes it mandatory that “At the beginning of each academic term and in any case no later than 30 October of every calendar year, the university shall prepare and publish a schedule of examination for each and every course…and shall strictly adhere to the schedule.” The university fails to honor this requirement.  

The Controller of Examinations had to postpone the examinations of some 10 PG programmes scheduled in October, to November, due to complaints from colleges stating that they could not complete the syllabus because of late admissions. How could the University announce the semester exams for October when the academic term began as late as mid-September, due to a delay in result declaration? The postponing of the exams will also cut short Term II. 

Section 72 of the MU Act provides that “the University shall strive to declare the results of every examination conducted by it within 30 days from the last date of the examination for that particular course and shall in any case declare the results latest within 45 days thereof.” This is never the case.  

The University’s research programmes are another mismanaged area. A circular issued by the Secretary, UGC, on July 6 states, “…any PhD/Phil degree awarded by a University under the supervision of a supervisor, who is not a faculty member of the University or its affiliated PG Colleges/Institutes, would be in violation of UGC (Minimum Standards and Procedure for award of Phil/PhD) Regulation 2009.”  This could make nearly 500 University PhD aspirants ineligible, as about 15 per cent of PhD guides do not meet the criteria.
Additionally, the university does not adhere to UGC guidelines such as maintaining a repository, hosting  PhD theses on the national research forum, having open defence presentations for  candidates  before they are conferred PhD degrees, and updating vacant seats subject-wise prior to issuing notifications for entrance tests. In the absence of an online repository, the university has no record of some 3,000 PhD degrees that it awarded. This callousness could result in all the degrees awarded during the past five years being declared null and void.

All this presents Mumbai University in very poor light.  There is no transparency in the functioning of this premier university, once a national pride. The entire university system is corrupt. The lack of accountability is the root cause of all its problems, making it important to fix responsibility for dereliction of duty immediately, which will have deterrent effect.

*All views expressed are solely the author’s and do not reflect the position of this newspaper.