Students allege error in admission process at TISS

Prospective students of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, have alleged discrepancies in the marking scheme of the admission process. The students

Prospective students of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, have alleged discrepancies in the marking scheme of the admission process. The students have also written to the institute administration pointing out the errors.

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The candidates have alleged that their final marks were not adherent to the weightage allotted to their TISS National Entrance Test (NET) and personal interview scores. The institute allots 60% weightage to TISSNET and 40% to a personal interview.

“The scores appear skewed in favour of those who appeared for the interview online,” a candidate said on conditions of anonymity.

Moreover, candidates pointed out that the marks obtained by candidates who appeared for in-person interviews in March were lower than those obtained by candidates who appeared for online interviews.

While a few candidates had completed their online interview in March, ahead of the lockdown, the institute switched to the online mode of interviews in June to complete the admission process.

Progressive Students Forum (PSF), a student organisation at TISS, has written to the institute on behalf of the candidates and demanded transparency in the admission process. One of the issues raised by PSF is that some candidates from the general category have been allotted seats in the OBC (NC) category.

The group has asked for clarification on the discrepancies from the administration. “The institute should make the complete data of candidates public, which should include data points like the total number of people who have applied, the number of people who have appeared for the admission process and the mode (online /offline PI), their original score, weighted score and the category under which they have been offered admission,” said the letter by PSF.

The institute administration admitted that it has received representations from students regarding suspected errors in the calculation of the final score. In a clarification issued to students on its website, the administration said there was an error in the marks of candidates who attended offline interviews. This was, however, restricted to the MA in applied psychology (with specialisation in clinical and counselling practice) programme offered by the School of Human Ecology.

A senior official said that the administration is rectifying the error and the final marks will be revised for such candidates. The institute said it had verified the entire marking scheme and software for all other courses and did not find any error.