Mumbai university assessment fallout: Final year BCom students have one less subject to study

Third-year Commerce (TY BCom) students will have one less subject to study, from the upcoming academic year 2018-2019. Currently, TY BCom students have seven subjects, which will be brought down to six.

The University of Mumbai (MU) has not taken the decision to ease the pressure of the students. It has in fact, taken the decision to ease the assessment burden, currently worrying the examiners.

The change in the syllabus is aimed at spreading out subjects more evenly during the three-year course. It will reduce the assessment burden on the delay-prone examination department, and will likely ensure timely results for the final year students.

“The university started gradually revising the curricula of the undergraduate courses from 2016-17 and culminated in 2018-19. Under the earlier syllabus, the students studied seven subjects each, in the first and third years and six subjects in the second year. The varsity decided to move one out paper of the special subject chosen by a student [accounting or management] from final year to the second year, as the second year had only one paper of the special subject,” said Siddheshwar Gadade, dean in-charge, commerce faculty, MU.

With the new curriculum in place, the university will have to assess 70,000 - 80,000 fewer papers in a semester examination. This is because MU only conducts final year examinations for other undergraduate (UG) courses, while the first two years’ tests are conducted by the respective colleges.

Earlier, MU, which is being weighed down by assessments after it adopted the on-screen marking system last year, shifted all but final year examinations of three and five year LLB courses to colleges.

Teachers hope that, with fewer papers to assess, MU will be able to declare the final year results on time. “Any delay in the third year results, affects the future career prospects of students,” said Jayant Apte, vice principal, KES Shroff College, Kandivli.

“There is an uproar because final year results are delayed. But number of examiners are not sufficient,” added Gadade.