Mangaluru: If you commit an error while writing your exam answers, you are penalised with a reduction, or marks. But the Mangalore University made a number of errors in the convocation certificates (325) it issued this year. The certificates pertained to BA, B.Sc., B.Com., BSW, M.Sc., MA, MSW, MBA and Ph.D.
The certificates did not mention the ‘A’ grade accreditation to the university by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council. The word technology was missing in the certificates issued to science graduates. The spelling of Syndicate was mentioned as “Synidcate”. The date 17 was mentioned as “17 h” instead of “17th”. The font size used to mention the faculty under which the doctoral degree was awarded was so small that it was difficult to read with bare eyes.
Shocked over the errors, Mangalore University Research Scholars’ Association took up the issue with the Vice-Chancellor who in turn in a June 20 letter to the association expressed his concerns and said that the Registrar (Evaluation) had been instructed to correct the mistakes and to issue fresh certificates to the concerned students.
More than two months after mistakes in degree certificates tarnished its image of Mangalore University, a committee has been set up now to inquire into the issue.
The new committee had been constituted as the second stage of inquiry. The Registrar (Evaluation) of the university had announced on July 26 that an internal inquiry had been initiated into the errors in the certificates issued by the university during its 33rd convocation on June 17.
The three-member committee has M.P. Noronha, member, Syndicate, who is also an advocate; and S.M. Dharmaprakash, director, Directorate of Correspondence Courses and a professor of Physics; and B.H. Shekar, Deputy Registrar Administration/Special Officer at the university, according to sources in the university.
Confirming this, K. Byrappa, Vice-Chancellor, told The Hindu that the committee had been constituted as per the decision of the Syndicate. He said that the university wanted to find out how it happened and who were responsible for it. It should not recur.
The university had taken steps to issue fresh corrected certificates to students, he said.
A few senior professors at the university, however view the inquiry by a three-member committee into how errors occurred in the degree certificates as “eyewash” and a “damage control exercise”.
