Calcutta University will stick to its decision to hold postgraduate examinations in its affiliated colleges at away centres despite objections from a section of the college principals.
Registrar Debasis Das said: "The decision approved at the university's syndicate meeting last Wednesday was intended to ensure transparency in the conduct of the examinations. The university will not compromise its commitment to maintaining fairness in examinations. Besides, the students of the university will also write examinations in away centres. So we have not discriminated against the students pursuing postgraduate programmes in colleges."
The syndicate meeting resolved that students pursuing postgraduate programmes in colleges and those in the university will write their semester examinations at a common facility on the university campus.
So far, students in colleges wrote the exams in their colleges (home centres) and those in the university wrote in their departments.
In a letter to CU's authorised vice-chancellor last year, the teachers' association flagged concerns about "mass copying" in the examinations in colleges, prompting the university to switch to the away centres.
The association said instances of mass copying came to their notice when the answer scripts were examined.
They alleged that it was difficult to distinguish one answer script from another because the content was the same.
On March 28, the All Bengal Principal Council's Calcutta University chapter said in a statement they will not accept the university's decision because they had not been consulted.
"There is nothing to consult with the principals. We have given affiliation to the colleges to run postgraduate courses and, if the standards of the programmes are to be maintained, they have to listen to what the university has decided. Or else we have to tell the college heads to run the postgraduate courses on their own without our affiliation," the registrar told Metro.
"A decision has been made to maintain integrity in the conduct of the examinations, and this has to be implemented from the examinations which will start from April 9," he added.
The Calcutta University committee of the All Bengal Principals Council said in a statement on Friday: "We feel shocked and humiliated that such a decision was taken by the CU syndicate without consulting us. We are deeply hurt by this decision of the University, and we do not accept it."
It added: "This should not, however, be construed by anyone that as principals we are thereby encouraging any unlawful activity like cheating during the conducting of postgraduate examinations in the examination centres."
Manas Kabi, the principal of Asutosh College and secretary of the council's CU chapter, said: "The university is yet to clarify who will pay the conveyance fees of the teaching and non-teaching staff who are to be deputed to the common centre on the university campus for invigilation duties. This point needed to be made clear following discussions with the principals."
"Besides, has the university ever told any principal about the malpractices being adopted in their colleges and asked them to take corrective steps?" Kabi added.
College representatives will meet CU's authorised vice-chancellor Santa Datta, on April 2 to lodge their protests.
