dna exclusive: Mumbai college's internal exam paper shows up in Mumbai University finals

Paper leaks, erroneous hall tickets, exam centre mix-ups, and now this. The University of Mumbai (MU), for the first time, stands accused of using the 'same’ question paper that a suburban college had given its students during an internal exam in October. 

The alleged goof-up was spotted in the 'Software Testing' paper of the BSc (Information Technology) program's fifth semester exam (QP code 04550) conducted by the varsity on November 14 for nearly 16,000 candidates from over 400 colleges across six districts. MU initiated a probe after dna tipped off the varsity about the matter on Thursday. Currently, the fates of these 16,000 students hang in the balance because if the error is confirmed, the university may have to conduct a re-examination.

BSc IT candidates at one exam centre claimed they overheard some candidates from Usha Pravin Gandhi College of Management, Vile Parle, saying that they had seen a similar question paper in their internal exam which was conducted on October 1. These candidates approached dna soon after they had taken the exam. Dna has copies of both the question papers. 

While this newspaper couldn’t independently confirm if the said question paper indeed belonged to the college, a comparison of both papers shows that two are a 90 per cent match. Q1 in both papers has four sub-questions, all the same, but with a difference in sequence. Q3, Q4, Q5 and Q7 are also exactly the same, including the sequence of the four sub-questions. Q2 and Q6 in both papers have 4 sub-questions, and of them, three are exactly the same.

“Since the charge was very serious in nature, a probe was initiated as soon as dna informed us. We obtained the internal exam paper from Usha Pravin Gandhi College on Friday. An expert committee has been set up to look into the similarities between both question papers,” said Dinesh Bonde, MU's controller of examinations, on Friday. When asked if there is a prima facie case of cheating against the paper setters, Bonde said, “I am not the subject expert so can’t I comment any further.”

An official said, “That professor might be in the paper setters committee of the university and would have repeated the internal paper with a motive of benefiting his/her own students or maybe more colleges.” Bonde, however, claimed, “I haven’t check the paper-setters' list yet. Moreover, we never divulge the paper setter's name.” 

Dna has learned that the college has reportedly given given a hilarious justification for the similarities. It allegedly told the varsity that the Software Testing course is very small and if a paper setter intends to cover all the chapters, the same questions can show up in any question paper, even suggesting the futility of paper-setting every year!

Amrish Patel, president of the Sri Vile Parle Kelvani Mandal, which runs the college, said, “I have no idea about the case. Please contact the in-charge principal, Madhu Kapur.” Kapoor couldn’t be reached till the time of going to press. 

Burning questions
Will a re-examination take place?
Possibly. While University officials are tight-lipped, academicians say a re-examination is the only option if the board of examination finds truth in the charges.

Re-examination would be injustice: Students
“A re-examination would be like punishing students for the mischief of some university officials,” said students of the BSc (IT), who now fear that they will have to give the exam again.

Another dent on MU’s image: Academicians
Academicians have called the alleged fiasco a major embarrassment for the university administration and said the alleged act of the paper setter was 'unethical' and a 'crime' against innocent students. “This one act of a certain paper setter not only dent's the university’s image further but also amounts to crime towards students. This will also demoralise all honest people involved in exam work.”