Data reveals that MU made a massive profit out of the reassessment process, but paid bare minimum to teachers doing the re-evaluation
Here’s a stat you are already aware of: The Mumbai University made off with Rs 12.3 lakh from just giving photocopies of answer sheets to students in 2015-16. But here’s a bigger stat to knock you right off your feet: The same varsity earned Rs 2.67 crore from the re-evaluation process in the same period. Even more shocking: It spent only Rs 2.57 lakh in remunerating teachers for the reassessment.
ADVERTISEMENT
The information, provided by the varsity in response to an RTI, reveals how the public university has earned a profit of around 98 per cent as administrative charges, even as the honorarium given to teachers for re-evaluation is the bare minimum.
Activists rally for change
Demanding an audit of the university, RTI activist Vihar Durve revealed the earnings from the past three years and compared it with the expenditure, saying, “Students are made to go through an exhaustive process where each has to first take a photocopy and then apply for re-evaluation. The entire process costs a student in the vicinity of Rs 600. If the varsity is earning so much, where is the money going?”
Varsity responds
When contacted, Registrar of the University, Dr M A Khan, said, “We are a public institution and just following the process prescribed. Teachers’ honorarium is not the only expenditure. There are other aspects — from infrastructural to other administrative functions to support the activity.”
Crunching the numbers
Interestingly, Deepak Vasave, the controller of examination, MU, reveals that while a student pays Rs 100 for photocopy and Rs 500 for reassessment, the teachers are paid a lump sum of R350 for re-evaluating along with Rs 120 travel allowance, though they are entitled to Rs 20 for every paper they reassess.