KOCHI: Landing thousands of students in trouble, the Mahatma Gandhi University has not declared the results of most of its courses on time triggering unrest among its students. The results being delayed are that of BTech 8th semester and supplementary exams, degree arts and science third and fourth semester and also supplementary exams, private registration exams, PG second and third semester exams and that of off-campus students.
These results were scheduled to be announced before mid-July, but have been delayed triggering an unrest on the university campus on Friday with BTech final semester students questioning varsity officials. They said that with the results delayed they have been denied the possibility for placement in companies including those in the public sector.
Interestingly, while the older universities are grappling with publishing their results on time, two nascent universities - Kerala University of Health Sciences (KUHS) and the Kerala Technological University (KTU) - with fewer numbers of staff have been able to publish results on time. "KTU has only 12 permanent staff including vice-chancellor and pro-vice-chancellor and we could publish first results within 28 days, second in 15 days and the third supplementary results in seven days," said PVC Dr M. Abdul Rahman.
The KUHS has eight statutory officials including VC and PVC and one permanent staff. It has 50 staff on deputation and 140 temporary staff. "We have been publishing results on time for the past six years and are under tremendous pressure too since we don't have enough staff. This August 7 was the deadline for students of specialty courses to apply for super specialty courses. The specialty exams were over on July 30 and we released the results in record five days enabling them to join the super specialty courses," said PVC of KUHS Dr A. Nalinakshan.
"In contrast, the MG University has a massive 1,390-strong workforce. With the formation of KTU and KUHS, medical and engineering colleges left the MGU, lessening the burden of work on the staff and it is a mystery why still they are not able to publish results on time," said an academician preferring not to be named. MG University vice-chancellor Dr Babu Sebastian said that the main burden on the university in streamlining result publication is the supplementary overload.
"Almost 70 per cent students of BTech appear for it for two to three times due to high failures. In the past two years, 968 new courses and 40 new colleges have been added to the university. We have to handle 50 lakh answer scripts of 4 lakh students. KTU and KUHS have much less number of students. We will be able to streamline the system after one year once the engineering and medical streams are fully out of the university," Dr Babu Sebastian said.
