After last year’s mess, Mumbai University to stick to tried-and-tested agency for degree admissions

Mumbai city news: Last year, MU hired a private firm to conduct the process, after university officials said the public firm it had tied up with was charging more and was responsible for goof-ups in the past

Online registrations for first-year degree courses at the University of Mumbai will be conducted by Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Limited (MKCL) this year.

Last year, MU hired Exxon Automation Private Limited, a private firm, to conduct the process, with university officials saying MKCL, a public limited company, was charging more than other companies and was responsible for repeated delays and goof-ups in issuing exam hall-tickets to students.

But this ended in chaos as the website designed by Exxon crashed on the very first day of the registration process and worked erratically over the next few days. The university had to extend deadlines and the admission process was delayed by three weeks. In its defence, Exxon had said it was given only a week to design the registration system.

The problems continued. After spending Rs45 lakh and getting more than two lakh students to register online, the university found the data provided by the private firm was of no use as the format did not match with MKCL’s — which carries out the pre-examination work for the university.Exxon had said they were ready to provide the data in the compatible format.

READ: Mumbai University online service fiasco: Colleges told to upload data again

“The decision was a failure. We won’t float any tenders this year, as our contract with MKCL is intact. The company will do the pre-admission registration work this year,” said MA Khan, MU registrar.

Naresh Chandra, the former pro vice-chancellor of MU and principal of Birla College in Kalyan said the decision will lead to a smoother admission process. “MKCL is an experienced group and has been doing it for a long time. They know where the gaps are.” Others, however, were upset about the university’s inability to find a replacement. “MKCL is known for goof-ups and heavy charges. The university management council had decided to discontinue its relation with MKCL. The authorities should have stuck to that decision,” said TA Shiware, the president, association of principals of unaided colleges.

MKCL has denied the allegations. “We are being maligned by people who don’t want transparency. We provide services at the rate fixed by the state in 2006. We are a quality-based company whose services are availed by organisations across the country. If there is a problem with our services, the university should have conveyed it to us,” said Vivek Sawant, director MKCL.