Mumbai University: Maharashtra Cabinet renames Economics department but mum on delay in results

Mumbai: Oblivious to the anxiety and uncertainty a section of Mumbai University students are facing over the delay in declaration of results, the Maharashtra government on Thursday approved the nomenclature change of the economics department to Mumbai School of Economics and Public Policy.[caption id=“attachment_3946939” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Worried students at Mumbai University. Sanjay Sawant/Firstpost[/caption] Naming it on the line of London School of Economics (LSE) and Delhi School of Economics (DSE), the state government will invest Rs 25 crore for five years to enhance the existing infrastructure while the renamed school will invest Rs 125 crore on its own. “The idea is to restructure the Economics department and standardise its functioning like LSE and DSE. In the financial capital of the country, the Economics school can also network with institutes like RBI, SEBI and find new theories of economics which can shape the economy of the country. The Economics school will offer masters, MPhil and PhD courses. New courses like data analytics, quantitative finance and better improvement of public policies will be added,” additional chief secretary of higher and technical education department Sitaram Kunte told Firstpost. While adding new courses and upgrading the department is a welcome step, the timing of the decision raised eyebrows as results of 14 subjects out of 477 are yet to be out. The institution has already missed five deadlines and the next date falls on 19 September with 10,000 students waiting. A total of 4.77 lakh students got affected as the university ventured into digital terrain for assessment of answer sheets with visibly poor preparation. Despite the ongoing crisis, the delayed results did not find any place on the agenda of Thursday’s cabinet meeting. Intervening into the matter state Governor and Chancellor C Vidyasagar Rao had even sent a show cause to Vice-Chancellor Sanjay Deshmukh on 31 July and later asked him to proceed on leave from 9 August onwards. Around a month back Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Education Minister Vinod Tawde had a meeting with Rao but the matters have not progressed much after that. Only notable political person who is steadfastly pursuing the case is Yuva Sena president Aditya Thackeray often tweeting about the irresponsible action of the institution that has pushed so many lives into a zone of academic jeopardy. Unmindful of the consequences that the students are suffering for his irrational decision to impose online assessment, Deshmukh according to sources wrote to the chancellor wanting to know the date from when he can rejoin as his leaves are getting exhausted. However, Rao is not keen to have him back at the helm of the university and is seeking legal opinions if the vice chancellor can be removed on the grounds of failure to perform his duties diligently. But this is easier said than done. “The Maharashtra University Act says that the chancellor cannot directly terminate the vice chancellor before following a due procedure,” said a senior official unwilling to be named. In its 160-year of existence, Mumbai University has run into this kind of a bottleneck for the first time. Not that the results that were declared so far are flawless. Around 80 percent of the students failed in the MA Sociology first year exam with 72 of them securing zero. Many BCom and law students also could not clear the exam due to errors during online assessment.