Amid tussle between Governor, Maharashtra government, colleges in Mumbai promote students, start new admissions

Even as the stand-off between the state government and Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari, who is also the chancellor of universities in Maharashtra, on the status of

Even as the stand-off between the state government and Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari, who is also the chancellor of universities in Maharashtra, on the status of examination for final year students continues, colleges are busy promoting and starting admissions for first and second-year students.

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While the University of Mumbai (MU) has clarified the gradation and promotion process, colleges say it’s easier said than done. With only a handful of staff manually working on results, and teachers working on the gradation formula in order to release subject-wise scores, most colleges are yet to start the admissions process.

“We had conducted exams for some subjects before the lockdown was implemented, so while teachers finish assessing these papers, they are also working on the gradation formula. This 50-50% process is tricky and we don’t want to make errors, so it is time-consuming,” said Parag Ajgaonkar, principal of NM College, Vile Parle.

According to a statement released by the varsity on May 23, it has requested all affiliated colleges to promote students from non-traditional courses on a 50-50% formula, through which colleges can base 50% of a student’s performance in internals and other projects in the current semester and 50% to be based on the student’s performance in the previous semester. “If there are any internal exams yet to be completed, colleges should conduct the same online or on phones. In the case of exams already conducted, colleges will choose the higher score of the student and consider the same for final results,” stated the circular.

A handful of colleges have already finished the gradation process and are planning to start admissions by mid-June. “We are still not sure if we have to wait for the university to give us a go-ahead for admissions or not? Our management has decided to start admissions irrespective of any word from the varsity,” said the vice-principal of a suburban college.

In some cases, colleges have already finished training students and teachers in online classes, and plan to implement the same at the earliest. “Training has been conducted for some time now so our college is ready to conduct classes online. We are hopeful of Class 12 results being released sometime soon so we can conduct admissions to first-year degree college and start classes too,” said Ashok Wadia, principal of Jai Hind College, Churchgate.