5 Best Goof-Ups of Mumbai University in 2013

Can a University once recognized as one among the top 500 in the world redeem itself? As students across all streams like Commerce, Engineering, Arts and Science face the unimaginable atrocities created by the Mumbai University, we list down a series of goof-ups and gaffles committed in the year 2013:

 

• Incorrect Question paper to MCom students:

Mumbai University had conducted Master of Commerce (MCom) exam at MMK College in Bandra (one of the exam centres) on 29th November 2013. Around 100 students were given incorrect question paper for Human Resources Management and one question was out of the new MCom syllabus.

Reason for the incorrect paper – Mumbai University provided a weblink to officials at MMK College. There were 2 links i.e. 2 sets of question papers for the subject concerned, 1 for old course and 1 for new syllabus. Confused authorities distributed papers of the old syllabus to the new course students which eventually forced the candidates to attempt the wrong paper and creating problems in the M.Com students’ lives.

 

• Usage of Black pens and zero marks to poor handwriting for engineering students:

Mumbai University had asked engineering students to use only black ballpoint pens in answer books but it didn’t clarify if pens are to be used for graphs and diagrams. For which colleges asked the students to use pens even for diagrams which created problems for students as drawing diagrams first with a pencil and then with a pen was time-consuming and one cannot erase a mistake. This created confusion among many colleges’ engineering students and moreover answer sheets were to be scanned by MU and uploaded on the website, from where examiners will access them for evaluation.

Recent circular on online assessment says that any engineering student who has illegible or poor handwriting may face strict consequences by receiving zero marks which the students were not informed in advance.

On November 15th, 56 examination were slated to be conducted by Mumbai University. Earlier the holiday was supposed to be on 14th November but the state government declared 15th Nov as holiday and MU had to reschedule the examination to 23rd November 2013. The notice was uploaded on MU website by late evening on 13th November which created confusion among students about the date.

Mumbai University had asked arts, science and commerce colleges to submit Internal marks of Sem V only through its portal. The deadline was 15th November and many colleges were given Login IDs and password. Many colleges kept trying till 14th November but couldn’t upload the marks as the application/software was not opening.

Mumbai University’s academic council decided in April (after the entire academic year) to scale down marks of students whose internal and assessment scores differ by more than 20%. The subjects in which students’ marks have been scaled down will be shown on the mark-sheet with a downward arrow. Marks of students who have failed the exam will not be scaled down. Over 1500 students of Bhavans College, Andheri organized a signature campaign against the policy. The change is sudden for this year’s final year batch. The credit-based grading system was introduced when they were in the first year. There were many failures in the first year then, as students did not give importance to internals. Now that they have understood that their scores in all the three semesters will be included in the cumulative GPA score, they are bound to be worried about any scaling down.