On August 28, the much delayed results of the Faculty of Law, May 2017, examinations were finally announced by Mumbai University (MU). While scrolling through the list of results, I noticed that I was marked absent in my ‘Law of Crimes’ paper. And as such, there was a giant F (fail) next to my name. This was unprecedented. I had failed in a paper I’d studied for and duly given. I was instinctively taken back and thoroughly depressed. I then learned that this had happened to over 40 of us in the batch. In fact, this was pervasive all across the streams. We were told that our results were held in reserve.

Fear, frustration and panic gave way to fury. We always knew that the university was in a state of disarray and there would be technical screw-ups, but this? We began devising methods to address the situation. We decided to send a consolidated application of all students who were wrongly marked absent and demanded redressal from the university. To our dismay, we had to fetch proof of attendance from our respective examination centres for that day. We were desperate. Our results were hanging in the lurch and our promotion to the next grade depended on this.

What went wrong?

MU is one of the first state universities in India and the oldest in Maharashtra. A majority of the elite and renowned colleges of various disciplines in Mumbai have a longstanding association with this public institution for the purposes of conducting examinations and issuing degrees. In 2017, MU reached new heights of absurdity by introducing a new system of assessment which turned out to be severely counterproductive.

The new system introduced i.e. the On-Screen Marking Assessment system entailed scanning all examination papers and evaluating them on a computer. This process created a large number of mishaps—including marking students absent for papers they’d attended; given single digit scores in a particular paper and receiving phenomenal scores in the remaining; papers being misplaced, and most importantly a gross delay in the declaration of results.

Over 73,430 results were initially held in reserve because either the answer scripts were misplaced or were not scanned or uploaded properly. According to reports, the university had rushed into the decision without even finalising the agency or training teachers despite opposition from the government and other stakeholders. There was utter chaos. Repeated assurances were given by various authorities ranging from the Chief Minister to the Vice-Chancellor that the mess would be rectified shortly.

Days passed but nothing happened. Consumed by angst and tension, my friends and I decided to take it upon ourselves to visit the varsity and scout for our papers. We queued up along with hundreds of other students suffering the same fate. As imagined, the situation at the university was like any typical public administrative office. Low ceilings, noisy fans, heaps of paper in disarray, registers consisting of student details stored since time immemorial and more disorganised papers.

Then came the constant diversionary tactics of sending students from one desk to another and back in full circle which went on for a while. Though the staff was kind and supportive and did eventually help us find our paper and provide us the requisite marksheet, the process was prolonged and wearisome. After spending enough time here, one can’t help but wonder why such a deeply conventional institution would adopt such a drastic method of assessment without even having the minimum infrastructure in place. How can the university expect teachers who are so accustomed to correcting physical papers accommodate to this radical shift of correcting expeditiously on computer screens by providing little to no training.

Larger Consequences

Jobs lost, Ivy League schools’ admissions deferred, bar exam deadlines passed— these were just a few of the many horrifying outcomes of all this. The authorities need to realise the significance of the stakes at hand. They need to realise that the future prospects of a large number of students depend on this. In addition to the loss of tangible opportunities, these things take a huge toll on the mental health of students as well. A final year law student who had to defer her master’s program said that “I was admitted to the Harvard Law School LLM batch of 2018. But due to my results not being declared on time, I was forced to defer my admission to Harvard by a year. I was already in Boston to begin my term, but I had to return home so I ended up spending a lot of money, which was all in vain. It was embarrassing to explain to Harvard how my university had failed to declare results in a timely manner. The deferral was wholly inconvenient and especially disheartening for no fault of mine.”

“Fortunately, Harvard was extremely sensitive to my situation and supported me through the whole deferral process. I must also mention that MU granted me a confidential result report in a remarkably short period of time, which was kind of them to do. Yet, it wasn’t enough for me and for numerous others who have either had to defer their admissions or even lose them. And I think they need to do better in their understanding of what foreign universities require. The stress was staggering and the whole deferral was disappointing to say the least.”

No Succour

It’s tragic that a student’s life is acutely entrenched in this system leaving him/her at the sole mercy of an inefficient system. The worst part is that our primary remedy lies with the same authorities who messed up in the first place. Our duty as students lies in studying diligently and giving the requisite examinations. Instead, we have to drop everything and spend hours battling administrative incompetence or deal with the enormous stress of our papers being lost.

Reams have been written about the recent setbacks of MU. Bad press has made no difference. Judicial mandates have never been strictly complied with. Government imposed deadlines which are not adhered to. Organised student action has never been paid heed to. A student is practically helpless in such situations.

Moreover, these repeated large-scale errors disincentivise the motivation to study in general. The student feels nothing but completely defeated and trapped. Sanaya Patel, a student whose marks in a paper transformed from an initial 6 to 60 due to a technical glitch said “I don’t know if my paper was marked incorrectly or if there was a printing error, but as students, we are forced to bear the brunt of a grossly negligent system. I will study for the joy of learning but at the back of my mind I know my efforts may not bear any correlation to my marks.”

The university has asked the students to wait and cooperate as they tracked these answer scripts. Authorities have cited various reasons that often lead to the answer booklets being misplaced which include wrong question paper codes being filled in at the time of scanning and uploading of papers, papers lost during transmission of answer scripts from the examination house godown to the scanning centre or other similar technical reasons.