Calcutta University published a notification last week detailing the steps that the university has taken to hold the postgraduate examinations in away centres following complaints of mass copying in the conduct of the examinations.
So far, students in colleges wrote the exams in their colleges (home centres), and those in the university wrote in their departments.
After the Calcutta University Teachers’ Association, in a letter to the university’s authorised vice-chancellor last year, flagged concerns about “mass copying” in the examinations in colleges, the university has decided to hold the examinations in away centres, said a CU official.
The notification, which was issued on April 9, says: PG (postgraduate) examinations, for courses offered both by the university and the affiliated colleges, will be held in a common center/away centers depending upon the number of examinees to be decided by the university. The centers and the allotment of examinees (in case of away centers) will be decided by the concerned PGBOS (Postgraduate Board of Studies).”
"In case of away centers, the concerned faculties of the university and substantive teachers of the affiliated colleges will act as invigilators in such centers where their respective students are not allotted," it says.
The notification says the theoretical answer scripts of the postgraduate students of the affiliated colleges “shall be evaluated by the examiners (teachers of the concerned postgraduate department of the university/substantive (permanent) teachers of other colleges offering the concerned postgraduate courses).
So far, teachers of the respective colleges would assess the answer scripts of their students.
“This would trigger allegations of unfair assessment. Therefore, while holding the examination at away centres, we have decided that the answer script of the postgraduate courses pursued in colleges will be checked by the teachers of the concerned postgraduate department of the university or teachers of other colleges,” said a CU official.
CU registrar Debasis Das said: “We have brought changes so transparency could be maintained."
On March 26, the university’s syndicate, in a 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.
The university’s registrar said the practice has been introduced from the semester examinations that started on April 9.
The university went ahead with its decision to hold the examination at away centres despite objections from the All Bengal Principals’ Council, which alleged that the decision was implemented without any consultation with the heads of the colleges.
“Since we give affiliation to the colleges to run the postgraduate programmes, we are well within our rights to decide on how the examinations can be held fairly," said Das.
"It has also been decided that the state government-appointed contractual teachers will no longer be allowed to evaluate the scripts," he said.
