NU to recall ‘wrong degrees’ of mass comm

Nagpur: A week after TOI exposed a major flaw of Nagpur University which was awarding ‘wrong degrees’ of postgraduate mass communication course, its administration led by vice chancellor SP Kane decided to recall those on Thursday.
On June 14, TOI had reported how NU had awarded ‘Master of Mass Communication (MMC)’ degrees since last four to five years even though its usage was stopped from 2009 when TOI had exposed same issue in 2007. NU used to offer Bachelor of Mass Communication (BMC) and MMC degrees then.
After TOI report that nomenclatures of both degrees were not as per the UGC norms and both degrees were illegal, NU constituted a panel under the then head of department at Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University in Aurangabad, Sudhir Gawhane, to tackle the crisis. The then administration under ex-VC SN Pathan and GS Parasher changed them to ‘Bachelor of Journalist (BJ)’ and ‘MA in Mass Communication’ in 2009 to fit them as per norms.
NU Board of Examination and Evaluation (BOEE) director (officiating) Anil Hirekhan confirmed that NU had decided to recall those “wrong degrees” and award new ones. “We’ve found that only 59 students were awarded those degrees with wrong nomenclature at NU’s Department of Mass Communication and Dhanwate National College (DNC). Of them, about 20-25 were taken by the students from their respective colleges while others are with their offices. We’ve directed colleges to convey students and ask them to return their degrees.”
Hirekhan said NU would award them revised degrees probably in a week. The university too came to know about the gaffe after TOI report. He refused to divulge details about how such a major blunder took place and which officials were behind it.
“Only after an inquiry the exact reason could be ascertained. It’s the job of my seniors and I don’t want to comment on it,” said Hirekhan.
Exam section insiders told TOI that they had properly awarded ‘MA is Mass Communication’ degrees till about 2015. “Some problems with software were developed and NU officials accidentally used old version due to which old nomenclature of MMC was published on the degrees. Such degrees were awarded for only two batches 2015-17 and 2016-18. Though NU officials later corrected the blunder after realizing their folly, they kept entire issue under the wraps to escape ignominy.”
Aggrieved students, who had flayed NU for playing with their future thanked TOI for taking up their cause that led the university to change its decision. “After reading news in TOI, we had protested and even planned to meet VC in this regard soon. We want that guilty should be punished as many such goof ups are committed by its officials regularly. Due to this error, we were denied entry to doctoral programmes and also employers questioned us on nomenclature of the degree which wasn’t recognized by the UGC and AICTE,” they said.