Will the dark knight rise again?

For the third time in a row, the University of Mumbai failed to secure a spot even in the top 150 universities across the country under the National Institutional Research Framework (NIRF) 2017 rankings released by the MHRD recently. The varsity's failure to secure a spot in one of the most prestigious rankings was yet another addition to the series of embarrassments that one of the oldest universities in the world has been facing for the last few years.

While the university administration maintained that it would 'introspect' the reason for its failure in the rankings, the problems plaguing the varsity's functioning run deeper than what one can see. In the past two years, the university has seen probably the worst time in its history — with its former V-C Dr Sanjay Deshmukh being 'sacked' by the Governor for poor implementation of the Onscreen Marking process, over 3 lakh students endlessly waiting for their results due to the evaluation mess, many of whom lost their jobs and higher education opportunities, and finally loosing its A grade accreditation from the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC).

As the varsity gears up to get a new V-C soon, numerous challenges await the university in all growth areas — from teaching to infrastructural development. At a point when the prestigious institute stands in a make or break situation, DNA tries to decode what ails the university. By using four key parameters set by the MHRD- Teaching and learning resources — Research and Professional Practice, Graduation outcomes and Outreach, Inclusivity and perception — we try to understand some of the key concerns and issues that need to be addressed for the university to regain its past glory.

Teaching and Learning Resources:

Teachers and students under the university's departments and 800-plus affiliated colleges have time and again raised concerns over the varsity's failure in upgrading its academic structure. One sixty years after its formation, the varsity's focus still remains on traditional courses like MA, MCom, and MSc at the postgraduate level with hardly any upgrade in the way these courses have been taught over the years. "The syllabus for most courses at the varsity have not undergone upgradation for the longest time. Nor has the university tried to innovate with its courses by bringing in some market -driven and socially relevant courses, especially in the areas of Science and Technology. As a result of this it fails to compete with even the smallest of institutions," said Prof Vaibhav Narawade, a senate member of the university. For instance, even as the Goods and Service Tax made an entry into all the academic modules of top institutes teaching commerce, the university still continues to teach students Direct and Indirect taxes. "Committees appointed for forming the syllabus are often formed on an ad hoc basis and people with very little experience often get to decide what should be taught," added Narawade.

Even as the varsity made an ambitious attempt to start a choice-based credit system (CBCS) from 2016, which essentially means that students can pick subjects of their choice, its implementation remains poor even today. "Most departments put up a list of eight to ten electives before the academic year, but ask students to select only from the two to three electives that its existing faculty can teach. This defeats the whole purpose of the system as students get no choice anyway," said a senior faculty member from the university. The Institute of Distance and Open Learning (IDOL), which is the biggest resource generating wing of the university with over 80,000 enrollments each year, still continues to follow the annual exam pattern with students gaining no practical knowledge of the subject.

Research and Professional practice

In the last week of March 2018, the university asked all the teachers who had been allotted minor research grants to submit their bills for the research undertaken. The intimation stating that their research projects have been approved came a week before the end of the financial year, pushing them to submit at least 60 per cent of their research bills even before they conducted any research. Nine years after the University Grants Commission (UGC) came up with the Minimum Standard Guidelines for the awardance of research degrees for universities, the University of Mumbai is yet to follow most of the guidelines. "The university does not follow any norms when it comes to research — from conducting entrance exams for MPhil/ PhD students to awarding PhDs, nothing is in accordance with the UGC guidelines," remarked Dr Balaji Kendre, President of the The University of Mumbai Academic Staff Association (UMASA).

The university, which awards over 300 PhD degrees every year, still does not have a mechanism to digitise its theses and does not scan any of the research work for plagiarism. In most university departments, the Departmental Research Committee (DRC), which allots research guides to students and monitors their research work at each stage does not exist. "Several faculty members who are authorised guides refuse to admit most students citing no vacancies and continue to admit students of their 'choice'. There are no digital records about the eligible faculty on the official website and students know nothing about what work has already been done as the theses are not uploaded on the official national portal 'Shodhganga'," said an Mphil scholar from the varsity.

Graduation Outcome

A 2015 study undertaken by the Rajiv Gandhi Centre of Contemporary studies at the University of Mumbai with Edusharp, a private education firm, and 'We empower', a voluntary organisation, revealed that over 80 per cent of the students from the university were found lacking the skills required to be 'employable'. Even as the university conferred over 1.87 lakh graduate degrees in 2018, it still does not have a fully functional placement cell. "Students graduating in traditional courses often find it difficult to get jobs as there are no campus placements, no industry interactions, etc. The university makes no effort to train students for the outside work environment and they find it difficult to compete with their peers who are just out of private universities across the country," said a senior faculty member from a college in the eastern suburbs.

With frequent delays in declaring examination results and revaluating scores, students under the varsity and its affiliated colleges have to literally 'earn' their graduation degrees. "Examinations are the backbone of the university.

However, with poorly planned exam schedules followed by constant rescheduling and then delayed results, students are at the receiving end of the university's pathetic functioning. Its high time that the university fixes these basic issues so that students won't have to run from pillar to post to get their hard-earned degrees," said Sachin Pawar, President, Student Law Council.

Outreach, inclusivity and perception

Even as the University under its former V-C Dr Sanjay Deshmukh tried to establish a campus in the US, its very own Institute of Distance and Open Learning hasn't got a full-time director for the past three years. Just like IDOL, the three sub-centres of the university — the Ratnagiri sub-centre, Thane sub-centre, and the recently-opened Kalyan sub-centre, lack basic infrastructure and academic resources. At the Ratnagiri sub-centre, for instance, students have to study amid closed toilets and broken tiles in classrooms. More than 50 computers that were purchased during the tenure of Deshmukh for setting up a Centralised Assessment Process (CAP) centre in Ratnagiri are yet to be unpacked and lie unused. "There is sheer neglect of the sub-centres, with no attention paid to any of the basic needs of these centres. The toilets in the sub centre are locked, there are no washbasins and the tiles in the classrooms have come off," said Pradeep Sawant, Senate member from the Yuva Sena, who visited the sub-centre recently.

Sawant said that apart from infrastructural issues, there are several academic and administrative problems. "The university had started a course in Marine Sciences with the help of Sindhuswadhyay Sanstha in order to undertake research in the field. Three years after the course was announced, it is yet to kickstart" he added.

Vilas Patne, Swatantra Konkan Vidyapeeth Kruti Samiti said that the state government should consider forming independent universities in areas like Konkan for administrative ease of the colleges in these regions and the students. "Students in various sub-centres or affiliated colleges have to go all the way to Mumbai for smallest of issues like results, revaluation, etc. If there is decentralised administrative and academic functioning, students would be able to benefit from it," added Patne.

The grievance redressal mechanism for students under the university remains extremely poor even today with most of the helpline numbers being unavailable or out of reach for students. In November 2017, the university forgot to constitute a student grievance cell after the earlier cell was dissolved. While a temporary portal was launched to address exam-related queries due to the onscreen marking mess, it soon became non-functional and students now have nowhere to go. There are no functional helplines where students can seek answers to their queries and urgent issues. "First, the university makes us run around for simple documents like convocation certificates. If one wants to check the status of the request made, nobody answers the phone on any of the helplines given on the official website of the university. The twitter handle of the university also doesn't respond to student queries and grievances," said a student pursuing MA on condition of anonymity.

With all the office bearers including the Vice Chancellor, Pro-Vice Chancellor, Registrar and Director of Examinations and Evaluation currently working at the University holding only temporary posts, there seems to be no accountability to address issues of students and other stakeholders.