The sixth semester TYBCom Marketing & Human Resources Management paper leaked on Friday about an hour before the exam. With nearly 64,000 students taking the test across 223 centres, Mumbai University authorities, alerted about the leak, sent a new paper to all the centres electronically. However, two colleges distributed the paper that had leaked—the principals claimed they were not intimated about the new paper.
Most centres started the exam about 15 minutes after the stipulated time of 11am, while the paper started about half an hour late at some centre . However, colleges gave students additional time to finish the questionnaire. The university has ruled out a re-exam. Pro vice-chancellor Naresh Chandra said, “The matter will be placed when the board of examinations meets. This morning, we sent out fresh question papers and passwords to every college. Our motive was to ensure that students did not suffer. Our damage-control exercise was prompt.”
Sources said either the Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Ltd’s weblink was hacked or some college may have printed the paper before time and leaked it. It is not clear how the paper leaked.
A complaint has been lodged with the Bandra-Kurla Complex police station.
The university’s controller of examinations, Padma Deshmukh, was first alerted about the leak. The caller shared the code of the question paper with her and told her that the paper was widely available on WhatsApp. Once she matched the code with the question paper that had been uploaded earlier in the day, she decided to upload a new question paper on the weblink. Information about the leak apparently came from Kalyan, and university authorities suspect the leak happened there.
At 10.35am, exam principals were sent a text message that read, “Dear Prin, Note: TYBCOM (216) (Sem-VI) (CBSGS) New paper is going to be uploaded, so please wait till u get new message, and do not use old paper. (URGENT) Thanks!”
College principals said they were peeved with the communication system of the university which was not very precise. “When I called up the university to enquire about the change in paper, I was told that there was some problem and I would get an update soon. When hundreds of students are taking the exam from my centre and are worried about the paper, I expect a clear response,” a principal said. Another head said he had often stated that the password to access the question paper need not be sent out two hours before the exam.
Authorities at Smt Parmeshwaridevi Durgadutt Tibrewala (SPDT) Lions Juhu College of Arts, Commerce and Science, J B Nagar, Andheri, and Indira Gandhi College, Vikhroli, said they did not receive the message and about 700 students wrote the paper that had leaked. The university has served a showcause notice to the colleges for not heeding its instructions.
SPDT college principal Trishla Mehta said, “I have reported the matter to the university. We were not informed about the second question paper by the authorities. So, 500 students at our centre took the exam as per the paper that was uploaded at 9am.”
Chandra said he was happy that the digital technology was in place. “If we did not have the e-delivery system, we would have had to cancel the exam.”
Friday’s leak was reminiscent of the 2012 MHRM paper leak when BNN College, Bhiwandi, gave out the wrong paper a day before the exam and students who got a sneak preview of it shared the paper with friends across the city. That was followed by a disastrous summer as several engineering papers leaked and the university decided to discontinue sending papers in its trucks and adopted the e-delivery system.
Source : TOI
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