The list of guides issued by the University of Mumbai last week for students aspiring to do a PhD has listed a teacher who has passed away. Furthermore, 39 per cent of teachers on the list have retired.
As part of its effort to keep students planning to appear for the PhD Entrance Test (PET), the University issued a notice on March 22 informing all colleges and departments about the exam as well as the list of guides from various departments and subjects. While the list showed 78 subjects and 2,108 available seats, it also had the names of 1,675 guides. Enquiries with the departments revealed that of the number of guides mentioned in the list, nearly 39 per cent had either retired or died. In fact, the list also had repetitions, wherein the name of one guide was mentioned for multiple subjects.
In all, the list has segregated the guides according to faculties as follows: Science — 1,035, Arts — 315, Commerce — 48, Law — 13, Technology — 146 and Pharmacy — 118 guides. The name of R.M. Bhatt, who passed away some years ago, is also present on the list.
Apart from this goof up, a closer examination of the 106-page list has revealed that while the names of guides are mentioned till page 53, the remaining pages are blank. At the end of page 106, a new list is attached with new names, which, senior academicians said implies that the University did not make changes in the old list, which can be as much as five or six years old. “The names of teachers with recent approval could be part of the new attachment that the University made at the end of the first list,” said an academician.
When contacted about the anomaly, vice-chancellor Dr Rajan Welukar said, “The matter will be investigated. Action will be taken against the person responsible for dereliction of duty.”
Question leak via SMS?
On Wednesday, an SMS bearing questions worth 45 marks of the Marketing and Human Resource Management subject of the ongoing TYBCom exams came to light, causing an uproar in the senate meeting. Senate members demanded an explanation on how the questions had leaked and who was responsible for the same from vice-chancellor Dr Rajan Welukar and dean of the Commerce faculty Madhu Nair. In his reply, Mr Nair said there was no basis in the allegations that the question paper had been leaked, as an experienced teacher could easily predict the questions that could be expected for the exam. Hence, he said, it was wrong to assume that the message was a case of the question paper being leaked.