Dinesh Kamath's news item 'University asked to reassess engineering paper' that was published in Newsband

University asked to reassess engineering paper

By Dinesh Kamath

NAVI MUMBAI: MLA Madhu Chavan has asked University of Mumbai to reassess and if necessary correct the answer papers of 82 students of final year mechanical engineering, from Lokmanya Tilak Engineering College in Navi Mumbai, who were shown as failed in the finite element analysis paper.

The students feel relieved since some among them face the risk of losing their jobs while there are some who had already applied for the admissions in the foreign universities. Failure would mean cancellation of their admissions.

Higher and technical education minister Rajesh Tope has also put in a word to the university to do the needful. There were 91 students who had appeared for the test out of which 82 were shown as failed. The students say that the papers were handed to amateur teachers for assessing purpose owing to which the students had to suffer. Normally experienced teachers correct the papers owing to which such a controversy had not arisen in the past. Another thing is the students who are shown as failed are supposed to be very brilliant youngsters. Their failure shocked not only other students but also the faculty and their family members.   

University has been asked to treat this matter with utmost seriousness and urgency since it was the question of students’ careers.

The paper in which 82 students failed was the one where a correction issued for a 15-mark question reached the students after half the time for the paper had lapsed. That is the obvious reason why so many students failed in that particular paper.

After the MLA took up the matter, there appears to be some hope for all these 82 students.

The surprising thing is that the letter, instead of being addressed to vice-chancellor Rajan Welukar, is sent to pro vice-chancellor Naresh Chandra.