Hall tickets elude students

Nearly 4,000 panic-stricken FY BCom students enrolled with the Mumbai University’s Institute of Distance and Open Learning (IDOL) gathered at its Kalina Campus on Monday to protest the inordinate delay in their hall tickets, even as their exam is scheduled to start Friday (March 30, 2012). The few who have received their hall-tickets are clueless about their centre, as the document does not mention that.

While confirming frequenting the IDOL institute for past many days, a tense student said requesting anonymity, “The entire point of doing a degree from the distance education mode was to save time, as we are working professionals. Somehow we have managed to get some days of leave from our work place, but we just cannot relax enough to be able to concentrate on our studies. While I do not stay very far, I have friends coming from far off places like Kalyan and Thane.”

A Kalyan-based student said, “Now, they are saying that the hall tickets will be available on the website on Tuesday. But if they fail to make it available online, we will have to come to the institute again.” Another student, thoroughly irked by the online system, complained, “Why they even started the online process in the first place, especially when they are not accurate enough with it? Not everybody is familiar with technology, and moreover the glitches go on endlessly.” Not surprisingly, ATKT students did get their hall tickets, but not without major confusion in their centre names.

Countering the complaints, IDOL Director Dr Harichandan said, “We had on December 29 last year issued a circular stating March 26, 2012 as the date when the hall tickets would be made available online. We are not delayed yet. While for the ATKT students, hall tickets would be available in the morning, the centre names will be on display by the afternoon of March 26. For others, the hall tickets will be available before 12pm.”

Explaining the delay, Harichandan said, “As there was an issue in getting exam centres in areas like Dadar, Ghatkopar and Andheri, it took a little longer to finalise them. Also, the Maharsahtra Knowledge Commission Limited — our technical partner for online hall tickets — delayed its processing of the same.”