Alarmed at reports that some private engineering colleges are indulging in malpractices during tests, the government-controlled West Bengal University of Technology has decided to introduce a chain of changes in its examination system.

A large section of students has complained of “deliberately” slack invigilation during the exams. So, the university plans to disallow its 65 affiliated colleges — about 40 of them in and around Calcutta — to hold the semester exams on their own premises.

Instead, students of one institution will have to go to another centre for writing the tests.

“The colleges are conniving at malpractices with a plain and simple intention — that their students score high marks. Once that is achieved (through copying), their demand will rise in the job market. And once the colleges are able to establish that job prospects for their pass-outs are good, they will be able to attract more students,” the complaint said.

Sources in the higher education department said the government took strong exception to the students’ grievance. It promptly asked the university authorities to take proper measures to check the malpractice.

“We are concerned about the complaints of malpractices. We are determined to ensure that examinations are held in a fair manner. Some new measures to check the practice have been introduced this year. We plan to scrap the existing system of holding examinations at home centres,” asserted university registrar Samir Bandyopadhyay.

According to him, as a first step to incorporate fairness in the examination process, the university has appointed some observers who are visiting the colleges during examinations to see if things are being conducted properly. Permanent invigilation teams will be set up once the system of holding the exams at home centres is abolished.

The university’s move to tighten invigilation during examinations was welcomed by a section of the private engineering colleges in the city.

“We will be happy if the exams are held in separate venues. The students of institutions where strict invigilation is maintained during exams will not have to suffer if a uniform system of conducting the exams is introduced,” pointed out Satyen Mitra, administrator, Meghnad Saha Institute of Technology.