Students fret as Mumbai University schedule clashes with ICAI exams

The recently announced examination schedule for the second half of 2016 by the University of Mumbai has sent final year students of the commerce stream into a tizzy as the dates will be clashing with the Institute if Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) exams that are scheduled to start from November 1. Students and college professors who double up as examiners for the ICAI exams say that the university should have verified the dates of other exams before announcing its examination schedule.

Speaking about the exam dates announced by the university, a final year student from H R College said, “The CA exams for IPCC and finals will be starting from November 1 and will be ending on November 8 and 15 respectively. Many students aspiring to appear for the exams from colleges affiliated to the MU are in a dilemma as the dates of the exams announced by the university will clash with the CA exams.”

A professor from a suburban college said colleges should schedule their exams along with the university exams so that the same are completed within a given time frame. “As the university has announced exam dates starting from October 4 till November 23 for the final year and post graduate courses, not only will students appearing for the semester V exams will suffer but their aspirations to appear for the ICAI exams will be affected,” said the professor.

With the university conducting exams in nearly three formats that include the 60:40 pattern, the 75:25 pattern both under the Credit Based Grading System and the annual exam pattern consisting of 100 marks papers, students of all three patterns will be affected as there will be a clash of one or two papers.

“The university should have verified dates of other exams before announcing its exam schedule. Now, unless the university changes the dates both students and faculty will have the unenviable decision to make whether to opt for the university exam or for the ICAI exam,” said another student from Podar College.

However Deepak Wasave, officiating Controller of Examination (CoE), MU, said the university exams were starting much before the ICAI exams. “As only a couple of papers may clash with the ICAI exams we will consider rescheduling the exams and will announce the new dates after verifying the clash dates,” said Mr Wasave.