Mumbai: A day before semester five law exams were scheduled to begin, hundreds of students on Monday found themselves in a state of confusion as they struggled to fill out temporary examination forms and get hold of their hall tickets.
“The university on Monday provided a link from where we could download our hall tickets. When I accessed the link, the name of my college didn’t show up. So, we continue to wait. Once I download the hall ticket, I will have to get it stamped and signed by the college. And my exam starts at 10.30am on November 29,” said a final-year student from a suburban law college.
For almost a month, colleges were unable to upload students’ academic records on the University of Mumbai’s (MU) portal. Colleges said they were trying to upload data for the last 26 days, but due to technical glitches, were unable to proceed further. For three years, law colleges conduct exams for semesters 1 to 4 and upload all data on the university portal, which is maintained by MKCL.
On Monday, students also visited MU’s Kalina campus to get their hall tickets. “Students whose examination forms have not been filled were asked to fill in the information on Google Doc. The colleges have informed us that based on that, they will be allotted hall tickets and after the exam, the form will be filled out online. This, however, is absolute chaos,” said another student.
In the midst of the confusion to seek hall tickets, MU declared Siddharth Law College, Churchgate, as an examination centre despite the college having informed university officials that they wouldn’t be able to accommodate students, owing to ongoing repairs.
“When I found out my centre is in Siddharth Law College, I went there and found the college is under repair. How could the university allot this college as an examination centre?” questioned Manish Chaumal, a fifth-semester law student.
Chaumal also wrote a letter to the Governor of Maharashtra Bhagat Singh Koshyari and demanded action against irresponsible officers of MU.
On the other hand, Sandhya Dohe, principal of Siddharth Law College said that their college made a special arrangement for the examinees.
“Major repair work is going on in our institute. Our sister institution has provided us with space for the examination centre,” said Dohe.
Officials in MU’s examination department said all hall tickets have been given to the students of the law course session 5 exams that will be held on November 29. “More than 6,000 students are appearing for the exam. Siddharth Law College is the examination centre where 253 students of Session 5 (60:40) are giving the examination,” said the official.
Sachin Pawar, a law graduate and member of Yuva Sena (BSS) said the university also goofed up on the duration of the exam. “In the semester fifth exam timetable that was published on November 16, the exam duration mentioned for 60-mark paper was from 10.30am to 1.30pm (it’s a two-hour exam) following demands from students for an extra hour since they’ve lost writing practice due to online exams. However, the time of the exam on the hall ticket now shows 10.30 to 12.30. We have demanded that the university allow students to write papers until 1.30pm.”