The controversial “scaling down policy” implemented by University of Mumbai in all undergraduate and postgraduate courses from this year has played spoilsport, dna has learnt. In most colleges, 20-50% students pursuing their BSc, BA and BCom have got their first and third semester exam scores scaled down.
The scaling down process lowered the scores of the candidates by 10-15%, affecting the grades and GPA which ultimately reflect on their cumulative GPA in the final year. “Over 90% students of Bhavan’s College have got their scores marked down in one or more subjects,” confirmed prof Ravi Mishra, who feels this policy makes internal assessment irrelevant.
Several students of SK Somaiya, Jhunjhunwala College, Jai Hind College, Podar College and Thakur College are also affected. Colleges are yet to declare their results.
According to the policy, “if the marks obtained by the students in the internal assessment and semester-end examinations differ by more than 20%, the marks in internal assessment would be scaled down.” The credit-based semester system implemented by the university in 2011-12 mandates 40% weightage to internal exams and 60% to the semester-end exams.
While affected students are demanding that the policy be withdrawn immediately, some principals, like Ashok Wadia of Jai Hind College, Churchgate, said the policy had little impact as its teachers didn’t give inflated marks in internals.
Usha Mukundan, principal of Jhunjhunwala College, demanded “scaling up policy” also for those students who scored less in internal as compared to semester end exam.
Pro vice-chancellor Naresh Chandra did not comment.
Case study
Rohan Das (name changed), a first year BSc student of Bhavan’s College, secured ‘O’ grades (over 70%) in six subjects, and a ‘B’ (60-65%) in the foundation course. However, his mark sheet shows the internal marks in this subject has been scaled down to 27, which is represented by the symbol ‘&’ in the mark sheet.
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