With the academic calendar at the University of Mumbai already reeling under pressure owing to the mess onscreen assessment left in its wake, admission for first-year programmes at the varsity’s distance learning institute are yet to commence even though the Class XII results were declared months ago.The Institute of Distance and Open Learning (IDOL) usually commences its first year courses in the month of June every year.”I have been visiting the Kalina campus in order to enquire about the date but there is no clarity,” said a 25-year-old who wants to finish his graduation after having cleared his Class XII five years ago.
IDOL, however, has already commenced admission for postgraduate courses like M.A, M.Com, M.Sc, and second and third year of BA, B.Com and BSc, etc. The registration window for the aforementioned courses will be open till October 5. Sanjay Vairal, a former senate member at the varsity, said that there was no reason for the first-year admissions to not have begun yet.
“They usually start the admission process after Class XII results and it has been months since Class XII results were announced,” said Vairal. He said that the students will be at a loss as they will not be able to prepare for the exams which are conducted within two months if the admissions are not conducted on time. The varsity is losing money with every delay and the revenue from IDOL takes care of salaries of several employees of the varsity,” he added.
He also raised concern over the purported changes being introduced in the curriculum of IDOL’s Bachelor of Commerce course. He said that the introduction of these changes may be behind the delay.
“Subjects taught in the B.Com course at varsity’s affiliated colleges is what must be followed at the IDOL,” he said. The varsity has said that it is expected to commence registration for first-year courses within a week.
The varsity’s academic calendar has experienced a delay after the introduction of onscreen assessment led to several problems in evaluation of answer sheets and declaration of results.
A delegation of Bombay University and College Teachers’ Union met acting vice-chancellor Devanand Shinde last week to express their apprehen sion over the examination time-table for the sec ond half of 2017
[“Source-timesofindia”]
