The University of Mumbai (MU) has directed the colleges affiliated to it to announce the schedule of the exams for the first and the second-year degree courses at least 30 days prior to the commencement of the tests.

This academic year onwards, colleges affiliated to the MU will again start conducting exams for the first two years of the degree colleges, for which the varsity issued certain guidelines on Wednesday.

In its circular, MU has also directed the colleges to declare the results within a month of the exams, while the mark sheets of the exams must be issued within 10 days of the declaration of the results. The guidelines have been suggested by a committee comprising of pro-vice chancellor Ravindra Kulkarni and the deans of all the faculties, which was formed in February. The committee entrusted with the task of framing the directions for paper setting, scrutinising the question papers and scheduling the exams for the colleges. “The guidelines will help the colleges prepare in conducting the exams,” said an MU official.

Though the exams will be decentralised this academic year onwards, the MU said it wants to maintain the teaching and evaluation standards in the colleges.

Until the academic year 2015-16, colleges were responsible for all the duties pertaining to exams for the first and the second-year degree courses. However, from academic year 2016-17 to academic year 2018-19, MU took over the responsibility of setting up question papers and scheduling of the exams, while colleges continued to shoulder other responsibilities.

In February however, MU’s academic council decided to entrust the responsibility to colleges again, after principals demanded for decentralisation of the exams. Principals said the step would ease the pressure of assessments on the varsity and ensure the timely announcement of the results. “We had informed the colleges about the academic council’s decision earlier,” the MU official said.

Following the committee’s recommendations, MU has decided to form groups, or “clusters” of colleges to monitor the evaluation process and keep a check on the quality of question papers and assessments. While the details of these clusters are yet to be released, the circular stated that each cluster will comprise of a maximum of 10 colleges located in vicinity, with one of them designated as the ‘lead’ college of the group. “The lead college will help the other institutes with the various aspects of the examination,” said another varsity official.

All the colleges in a cluster are required to submit copies of their exam time-table, question papers, list of examiners and moderators and a summary of the results to the lead college, which will act as a link between the colleges and MU.

The university also plans to keep an eye on the college exams through “Monitoring Committees.” The committees, appointed by the Board of Deans, will conduct random inspections in colleges to ensure that the institutes are following the university’s examination rules. The colleges will also have to send copies of their question papers to the university for scrutiny. “The Board of Studies will ensure the quality of the question papers and render useful suggestions,” read the circular.

First Published: Jun 16, 2019 01:07 IST

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