Academics slam NU for ‘degrees on zero marks’

Nagpur: A day after TOI reported on how even a zero score in Nagpur University’s MCQ exams can assure a degree to its final year students, the academics slammed the administration terming the entire exercise as “farce”.
Further flaying the government and NU officials, academics said they were conducting the exams as mere formality, but it would be detrimental for students in the long run. Some of them charged both of committing contempt of Supreme Court’s directives and also flouting rules set by University Grants Commission (UGC).
“This is gravest contempt of collective conscience committed by the authorities. It will put sanctity of entire examination system in jeopardy. In the entire process, the quality would be sacrificed. They should have fixed at least have some passing marks in MCQ exams. Even if clicked on option ‘A’ in all 50 questions, you will get at least some marks due to theory of probability,” senior academic Dr Vedprakash Mishra said.
On NU officials passing the buck on government’s directives, Dr Mishra said when they talked on autonomy of universities, they shouldn’t blindly follow what the government had advised. “The government can only direct universities on financial issues. On others, latter are independent to take the decisions,” he said.
Stressing for having a separate passing percentage in MCQ tests, senate member Manmohan Bajpayee said the university shouldn’t make a mockery of exams just to complete formalities laden by the Supreme Court and UGC.
“The NU authorities are playing with the future of lakhs of students by allowing even those scoring zero marks to get degrees. Taking precautions in pandemic and conducting MCQ tests can be considered. But passing all students who appear for online exams would be a big farce. The student should score at least 18/50 marks for clearing the papers, else NU degrees would have no relevance,” he said.
A former Management Council member pointed out that UGC had made a provision of awarding 50% marks in internal assessment only for first and second years and not for final. The guidelines were issued by UGC on April 27.
“The government is using this provision for its own convenience. At least, the NU authorities should have modified it and ensure separate passing marks for theory as per prevalent rules. This is completely unethical. More importantly, all students would be at a loss in future. They wouldn’t be able to compete with other universities or states students at higher levels,” he said.