Mumbai: Students from various colleges came together on Tuesday for a bheek maango abhiyan (begging drive) in protest against the Mumbai University’s delay in announcing results.
Protesters, led by the National Students Union of India (NSUI), said the delay has kept students and their parents on tenterhooks, and put their future in peril. Those who plan on applying overseas for further education have been badly affected, they said.
The university has already missed three deadlines to announce the results.
Akram Khan, 22, a BMS student, said, “My mother and sister have been saving money all their lives for my admission at the University of West Scotland. But this delay has led to unnecessary tension at home.”
Students complained that university officials had lost their applications for results, and they had been forced to file fresh ones. They also had to wait for a long time at the desk and had to run from one official to the other, mostly in vain.
Pro-Vice-Chancellor Dhiren Patel requested students and student-run bodies not to get swayed by political intentions of others, and to allow the university to clear up the mess. “Students who have applied overseas, shall be provided sealed confidential results addressing the university concerned. The same shall be done for law aspirants as well,” Mr. Patel said.
He did not specify a new deadline for the release of results.
The university also assured that all the remaining results would be declared over the next two weeks, as teachers had started correcting BA papers from Monday. The results are expected before September 7, officials said.
Though a cause of much debate, the decentralised assessment process has brought some convenience to teachers.
“The new system comes with a lot of advantages. We don’t have to travel all the way to the university to assess answer sheets. It brings the university to us, which saves a lot of time,” said Manjula Srinivas, head of the mass media department of K.C College, Churchgate.
However, Ms. Srinivas said, the system wouldn’t have generated so much controversy if a pilot study on a smaller course had been carried out first, or if it had been introduced in an odd semester.