Let law colleges in Maharashtra conduct first, second-year LLB exams: Principals

As University of Mumbai (MU) continues to struggle to declare results for law examinations, law college principals, university and state government officials met on Monday to discuss the possibility of holding first and second-year exams at college-level.

The proposal was tabled at the meeting, attended by education minister Vinod Tawde, by some of the principals. Although sources said Tawde favours the proposal, he asserted that the final decision will taken by the university’s academic council and other bodies.

“LLB is the only programme where all the semester examinations are evaluated through the university’s on-screen assessment system . Some principals asked why can’t these exams be conducted by colleges, just like regular courses,” said Murlidhar Kurhade, dean, faculty of humanities, who was present at the meeting.

Currently, varsity conducts all the semester examinations of three-year LLB and last three years’ examinations of five-year LLB courses. However, it only conducts the final year examinations for the other undergraduate (UG) courses while the first two years’ tests are conducted by the colleges.

Bachelor of Engineering (BE) course is another exception, where the first year examinations are also conducted by the university. The university provides uniform question papers for exams taking place in colleges, but the assessment is done at college-level.

The move is aimed at reducing the assessment burden of MU, which adopted the on-screen marking system last year, causing a delay and problems in declaring results.

“It took time for the university to remove the glitches in OSM. The assessment mess has spilled over and caused other problems. Some people are not comfortable with the on-screen assessment," said a principal, who attended the meeting.

As many as 48 law colleges are affiliated to MU.Till last Thursday, the varsity had assessed only 51,000 out of 74,000 answer sheets of three-year and five-year LLB examinations held last year. According to varsity officials, answer sheets of law faculty take longer for assessment than other faculties, as most of the teachers in law colleges are professional lawyers, who teach on clock-hour or temporary basis.

Srividya Jayakumar, principal, Thane law College, said the move has its own drawbacks. “Unless the MU tightens its academic audit, having colleges conduct the examinations is not safe. Colleges may take these exams lightly, and assessment standards may deteriorate. Law courses can't be compared with courses like BA and BSc, as it's a professional course. The varsity needs to put in place a uniform schedule and other safeguards, before allowing colleges to conduct exams," she said.