Mumbai varsity gets new exam department head after three years

A selection committee headed by vice-chancellor Suhas Pednekar has appointed a new director of the Board of Examination and Evaluation (BoEE) at the University of Mumbai (MU). The post has been lying vacant for the past three years. The university has also got a new registrar more than a year after the position of the administrative head fell vacant. Students hope the new appointments will improve the recent track record of MU’s examination department.

Pednekar has appointed Vinod Patil, a system analyst at the examination department of North Maharashtra University (NMU), Jalgaon, the director of the BoEE at MU. Patil had previously worked as a deputy registrar at MU between January 2012 and January 2013.

Aditya Roongta, final-year law student from Government Law College, said, “A full-time appointment is a win-win situation for all. While the students will benefit from increased accountability, officials will gain with the security of tenure and independence. This will eventually reduce burden on the vice-chancellor.”

The position of the registrar of MU has been assigned to Ajay Deshmukh, who is currently serving as registrar of Sant Gadge Baba Amravati University. A total of 29 candidates had applied for the post of director, BoEE, of whom 24 were deemed eligible for the position and 18 appeared for interviews. There were 49 applications for the post of registrar, of whom 32 candidates were shortlisted and ultimately, 24 were interviewed.

Patil said that declaring results in a timely manner would be his priority as director of BoEE. “I will focus on delivering a transparent and efficient service to students by making use of information and communication technology (ICT). The OSM [on-screen marking system] is successfully being implemented at NMU since 2015. As the volume of students is much bigger at MU, the use of technology can reduce the manpower requirement,” he said.

MU’s examination department has been in the news for mistakes in question papers, delays in examination results and leaked question papers. In 2016, the university switched from pen-and-paper assessment to an on-screen marking (OSM) system, which delayed the results by approximately six months, produced erroneous results and affected the academic calendar in subsequent terms.

Between 2010 and 2015, the office of controller at the examination has been occupied by seven individuals. The registrar’s position fell vacant in August last year, after MA Khan stepped down to become the chief executive officer (CEO) of Haj Committee of India.