Students fret: Mumbai University again schedules commerce exams during CA exams

Many students pursuing commerce courses are also studying for CA course

The University of Mumbai (MU) has once again scheduled commerce course examinations during the Chartered Accountancy (CA) exams in April.

Similar problems were faced by SYBCom students in November 2017. (HT FILE)

Many students pursuing commerce courses are also studying for CA course. Students and colleges have written to the examination department of the university, requesting that the university to reschedule the timetable, especially for second-year commerce students (SYBCom).

“Not just SYBCom, but students studying Bachelor in Accounting and Finance (BAF), Bachelor in Banking insurance (BBI), etc., too are complaining because the university has scheduled their exams from April 23,” said the principal of a suburban college.

He added that this is not the first time that university exams have clashed with CA or CA Intermediate exams. “Sadly, the university has never managed to schedule papers keeping in mind other competitive exams that students appear for,” he added.

Similar problems were faced by by SYBCom students in November 2017 as they had complained about their exams clashing with CA exams between November 2 and 15. “Last year too, the university rescheduled our exams barely a week before the exam commenced. It’s unfair how we are being asked to choose between two exams by the university every year,” said Sukanya Nair, a SYBCom student from Mulund College of Commerce.

The examinations and assessment department of MU has received several complaints and are in the process of finding out the exact number of students who will be affected by the clashing dates of the exams. “Changing the examination schedule is very difficult so we first want to find out how many students will be affected. Depending on that, we will take a call on the complaints received,” said Vinod Malale, deputy registrar (public relations), examinations department, MU.

Malale added that the university has made sure that exams don’t clash with CA final exams but the complaints have come from students who will be appearing for the intermediate exams in April. “We will inform students about our decision soon,” he said.