Mumbai University: A playground to destroy careers!

– Anjani Raipat

Stationed in the financial capital of the country with more than 700 affiliated colleges and more than 5,00,000 students enrolled with it, Mumbai University boasts of alumni like none other. From the late B.R Ambedkar to Pratibha Patel, from Anil Kapoor and Vidya Balan to the Ambani’s and Adi Godrej, the list goes on. However, when one counts for Mumbai University today, it is not for its notable alumni anymore, or the fact that it represents a heritage and legacy that was established around 100 years before the country first breathed an air of independence. Instead, it is the failure of the University that one recites today; the failure to stand by its own motto “The Fruit of Learning is Good Character and Righteous Conduct”.

An RTI query filed by activist Vihar Durve reflects the wretched state of affairs that the students enrolled in MU have to bear. According to a report, out of the 3.5 lakh candidates who wrote the exam, 1.2 lakh (one out of three) students applied for a revaluation. Further, during the first term of 2016, 16,934 out of 44,441 cleared the examination after applying for a reassessment. These statistics raise eyebrows on the seriousness of the University while dealing with the career of lakhs of students. It is not surprising to say that the entire process of re-evaluation and attaining photocopies of the answer-sheets is inclined towards money minting. For every application of reassessment and photocopy, the applicant spends a non-refundable sum of 500 and 100 respectively. With thousands of students compelled to apply for the same every year owing to the dismal errors in the mark sheets, Mumbai University has done absolutely nothing except pocketing this absurd amount from the students. This year, the ordeal by MU did not end after it declared the already delayed results of thousands of students. Once the results were declared, hundreds of candidates panicked as the mark sheet showed them ‘absent’ and hence failed in an exam for which they had toiled. Hundreds of students queued up outside the University only to be asked to bring their attendance proof and were asked to leave without receiving any adequate receipt and redressal to their grievance. The frustration amongst the students, a number of PILs applications filed and the continuous pressure from various political/ non-political groups will sooner than later compel the university to re-evaluate and release the actual marks of the candidates. However, the question remains that why does a 19-year-old need to go through this gruesome process? Why is not sufficient that a candidate is awarded judicially for his learning at the first go?

“We have not hired robots that everything would be done within a short period. The entire system (assessment) is being looked after by humans. There are glitches and we are trying our best to fix them.” These are the words of varsity’s counsel Rui Rodrigues explaining the delay in declaring results of multiple faculties after having faltered multiple deadlines in a span of four months. The problem is definitely not in the ‘glitches’ that the University encounters once in a blue moon. The problem lies in the bureaucracy, in the attitude of those holding the chair to reform the University. The University encounters the same problems every time, every year and not with 100-200 papers, but with 1000s of them. With a problem so persistent, the Government could have taken up the reforms in the working of University as an agenda on priority. Unfortunately, a couple of thousand jeopardized careers do not seem to affect the vote bank of those holding power.
Every year, the deadlines for admissions are not met, every year the university fails to declare the results on time, every year, there are ghastly blunders in the mark-sheets, the syllabus remains orthodox, the teachers under- qualified and the student-teacher ratio is seen deteriorating with every passing term. The resources of the University are not bettered to ensure that the future of the students is in safe hands, the wrongly failed are not refunded or compensated and an opaque system continues to plague the education system. Year after year the rants of the students have fallen on deaf ears. The judiciary has not done anything substantial other than giving feeble directives that are no good to reform a lackadaisical system.

A transparent system, a proper grievance redress method, adequate resources, a formal and an efficient marking criterion and the correct people to lead the University is the cry of the hour. Mumbai University has for long stifled the voice of its students. It is high time they deliver what they are supposed to and show some empathy towards the plight they have created.