Vinitha was a consistent high scorer in her class but her shockingly low percentage at the Bangalore University’s Pre University exams left her with very little choice for her higher studies. With the City’s best colleges limiting her options, she was left with either taking up a course of her choice in the college she didn’t like or a course she didn’t like in the college of her choice.
This is not an isolated case. Many students have had to endure similar experiences due to what they term, ‘callous attitude of the Bangalore University’. And things are only getting worse, they feel. Not just with misplacing examination papers or committing an error with the final marks, but giving out marks in exchange for money and delay in revaluation certificates too.
 “Isn’t it the responsibility of the university to provide quality education and encourage students to excel,” asks Akanksha, who attempted to apply for revaluation after her percentage in the PUC exams was way below her expectations. “I definitely did better than what my marks reflect and am only expecting the university to give me what I deserve. It’s not fair on us when we work really hard throughout the year only to be completely let down by the university. Revaluation, I have realised, is just a facade as the university does not take this process seriously. There is just one single centre at Malleswaram for students to apply for revaluation. The person in-charge not only discourages students to apply but also demands a bribe,” she says adding, that money and the right contacts are a bigger criteria for BU than genuinely good students.    
Standard deteriorating
This, according to Bhaskar, a BBM graduate, could be the reason why BU’s courses are not valued by other universities or employers. “The quality has surely deteriorated and not just with education. I applied for my second semester revaluation soon after the results. I got the revaluated marks nearly a year later, but till today, haven’t received a certificate stating I have completed my first year degree. I have now graduated and was looking forward to a good job but everywhere I apply, the employers ask me for certificates, including the first year, which the university still hasn’t provided. It’s very embarassing as interviewers refuse to believe that I have cleared all exams. The bottomline — I can’t get a job without my certificates.”
For Anita, a psychology student, being marked absent for an exam she’s quite sure she attended is by far her most horrifying experience. “We already undergo enough stress awaiting results and when they do come, they claim you haven’t attended an exam at all. Apart from the many thoughts that was running in my head, the most disturbing one was that if the university had lost my paper, I would have to write that paper again and I would be marked ‘failed’ in my marks sheet. Imagine explaining this to your future employers, no one will believe that.”
After waiting for hours in long lines and being harassed for money by the evaluation centre, Akanksha refused to pay up and decided against revaluationv. “I was disappointed with my 75 per cent because I knew I could get 85 per cent and above but I couldn’t stand the way the authorities at the revaluation centre behaved. It’s not a surprise then that many people settle for the marks they get despite knowing they are capable of much more.”
The flip side
John Joseph Kennedy, Head of the Department of Media Studies, Christ College shares some of the possible reasons why students may be at the receiving end.
“Evaluators are mostly lecturers from various colleges in the City who have to shuttle between teaching their students and correcting examination papers for the university. It then becomes our responsibility to ensure the two don’t clash. Also, the distance between evaluation centres and colleges is so huge that travelling becomes a problem. Time constraints is a major issue here.”
But that’s not all, he says. “Lecturers are not given proper remuneration for their added responsibility and UGC lecturers, like myself, have been taken off the pay package for over six years now. Basic amenities such as proper desks, chairs, bathrooms and even drinking water is not provided. With respect to evaluation of answer scripts, computerisation of the process of coding and decoding is a method the university is looking at implementing but until the human element is present, errors will continue to happen,” says Kennedy.
Madhumitha B
(Some names have been changed on request)
Vice chancellor’s response
‘I will enquire about pending revaluation certificates’
H A Ranganath, Vice-Chancellor, Bangalore University, claims that the system has become more student- friendly unlike sometime back. When asked about revaluation centres demanding excess money and students expressing complete disappointment with the system, he says, “Students must come forward to give the Registrar, revaluation written complaints about erring BU officials. This will be handed over to me and  I will take necessary action like I have done before after receiving complaints.”
On the university failing to provide students with their degree certificates for long, he says he is unaware of this issue. “I will call on the registrar, revaluation immediately and make a check on the pending revaluation certificates. Based on that, I will work on ensuring students get their certificates as soon as possible.”