MU hands more power to colleges

MUMBAI: The University of Mumbai (MU) on Thursday handed over all the responsibility of the first year and second year degree students to the colleges. From 2016 to date, their exams, syllabus, timetable and assessment were being managed by the varsity, which has now been revoked..

The idea behind the move is to lessen the burden on the university. From the next academic year, MU will only oversee the FY and SY degree students. This, according to the officials, will allow teachers to focus on assessment of the final year students' papers. “Teachers are usually burdened with too many responsibilities.

By letting the college teachers assess the papers, it will balance the burden and thus will boost the quality of work,” a senior official at the varsity said.

Before 2016, colleges did their own assessment and planned their activities. But in 2016, MU took over the responsibility from colleges and managed everything on their own. Now from 2019-20, colleges will have to make their own timetable, syllabus, examination schedule, answer paper assessment, etc. "The important part of this move is that now we can avoid exam clashes with other external examinations. In any case, our students’ preference will be more important for us. This indeed is a good move by the university,” the principal of a Bandra-based college said.

With colleges getting the responsibility again, they will be able to plan things according to their own preference thus making it flexible for both teachers and students. But the varsity will continue to oversee the status of examinations and syllabus in its
affiliated colleges from time to time, just in case of any glitch.

Meanwhile, for the final year or third year students, the University will continue to assess their papers using the online-screen marking system (OSM).