Mumbai: In another major embarrassment for the University of Mumbai (MU), and in a complete contrast to the claims made by the university, convocation certificates bearing misspelt name of the institution — “University of Mumabai” — have reached several students of the affiliated colleges.
Earlier last week, MU was left shame-faced as several colleges started to return the convocation certificates issued by the university due to “Mumbai” being spelt incorrectly as “Mumabai” above the logo. The university, back then, had acknowledged the mistake, but had asserted that it had stopped the distribution of the certificates and that the degrees had just reached the affiliated colleges and not the students.
However, students from institutions such as S.A. Podar College have now received the erroneous certificates, with The Free Press Journal having access to them.
“If the degree with incorrect spelling has reached Podar College, it must also have reached the neighbouring Ruhia and Khalsa colleges. After the university clearly showing a lack of oversight, now it has resorted to spreading misinformation that the incorrect certificates are not reaching the students,” said Pradeep Sawant, a senate member and a Yuva Sena leader.
While the university claims that only 1,000 erroneous certificates were printed, Yuva Sena claims that over 1 lakh such certificates were printed, of which thousands were already sent to the affiliated colleges.
“The university must ask the colleges to return those certificates immediately. And the students who have already been issued the faulty certificates must also be asked to return them and the university must issue the fresh, correct certificates at the earliest,” Sawant told the FPJ.
While the university has already formed a disciplinary committee to look into the matter, Sawant alleged that it was a “cover-up” act more than a dedicated effort to find the reasons for “such a huge blunder”.
“We asked the university to include at least one student representative in the committee, but they refused. It raises serious doubts about if the committee wants to uncover the truth or if they just want to cover-up their blunders,” said Sawant.
Yuva Sena senate members on Monday met university officials and submitted a memorandum, demanding a thorough investigation into spelling error, strict action against those responsible, and blacklisting of the concerned private agency. The university has outsourced the printing of the certificates to a Hyderabad-based firm.
While the mistakes in students’ names and other details in MU’s certificates is “common”, the university’s name itself being misspelt was a first instance this year. “Over the past two years, we have received multiple complaints from students regarding similar issues. We have been consistently following up for a joint meeting with the university, but it appears that either we are being ignored, or there is a lack of concern for student-related problems,” the Yuva Sena alleged in its meeting with the university officials.
The convocation ceremony for the 2023-24 batch took place on January 7, where over 1.64 lakh students graduated. “During the discussion, the Vice-Chancellor informed us that only 1,000 certificates were misprinted, while the rest were correct,” said Sawant. “However, according to our information, errors exist in all degree certificates, and it seems that the administration is misleading the Vice-Chancellor,” he added.
