Guwahati, Oct 18: Amid allegations of “technical glitches” in the software operated by a central systems integrator, authorities of Gauhati University (GU) have informed that the institution would soon put in place its own software management system for smooth conduct of semester exams and academic sessions.
The GU authorities revealed that the services of ITI Ltd, the systems integrator deployed to operate the university management software, IUMS, would no longer be continued. This has already been conveyed to the Post Graduate Students Union (PGSU) of the university, earlier.
“Corrective action has been initiated in the entire examination process and things are back on track now. We are developing our own system which will be operational soon. So that chapter (of alleged anomalies and technical glitches) is now over,” GU registrar Dr Hemanta Kumar Nath said while speaking to The Shillong Times here on Tuesday.
In a letter to the PGSU members back in August this year, when a section of college students had staged a protest complaining about anomalies in the results of the undergraduate (UG) fifth semester examinations, the GU registrar had informed about the university’s plan to introduce an alternative system.
“As such, the company, ITI Ltd will not be there, the service period of which is coming to an end this month (August 2022). However, in the interest of the students, it will have to complete all pending work without any extra expenditure on the part of the university,” the letter to the students’ union read.
It may be mentioned that GU has over 340 colleges affiliated to it.
Online integrated university management systems, such as IUMS, help deal with problems in answer sheet evaluation and delay in exam results among other issues.
“Regarding the alleged anomalies in the results of the fifth semester examinations, the university is examining all the grievances as received and it will be addressed soon on the basis of genuine credentials of the students,” the letter read.
On the complaints of students regarding their marks in the fifth semester exams, the GU registrar informed that the complaints regarding their marks were found to be untrue.
“The students who complained that they should have passed have actually failed. We called them to the campus to check their answer scripts and it was subsequently revealed that they had failed. So these were not genuine demands by the students at that point in time,” Dr Nath said.
The GU registrar however admitted that the results of the semester exams this year have been declared “a little late because of the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects.”
The results of the fifth semester (UG) exams, held in January-February this year, were declared in the last week of July, while that of the sixth semester exams held in June were declared in the first week of September.
The university had taken tough measures thereafter, also placing the then controller of examinations (CoE), Dhruwajyoti Choudhury under suspension assigning the additional responsibility of controller of examinations.to the deputy controller of examinations at the university.
“The decision was taken following anomalies and delay in declaration of undergraduate examination results this year,” an official order, issued in August, from the registrar said.
Sources however said that since the MA/MSc academic sessions in GU get under way by August, there is a provision of conditional admission for the sixth semester UG students in post graduate courses of the university even if their results are not declared by that time.
Speaking to The Shillong Times, PGSU (GU) general secretary Biki Sarma said that things have improved considerably from what it was earlier this year.
“In response to a memorandum back in August, the university authorities had assured us of addressing our grievances besides replacing the earlier software with an alternative arrangement, which we hope would facilitate smooth conduct of the examination process,” he said.