Mumbai University spending more than it earns: Official
The University of Mumbai has rubbished claims made by an RTI activist that it earned Rs 7.93 crore simply through the revaluation applications it received over a period of three years.
The University of Mumbai has rubbished claims made by an RTI activist that it earned Rs 7.93 crore simply through the revaluation applications it received over a period of three years.
The university said the information was misleading and on the whole the university maybe even spending more than what it collects as fees.
Vihar Durve, through a Right to Information application received from the finance department of the MU, found out that the university earned a whopping Rs 7.93 crore through fees collected for revaluation and providing photo copies of answer sheets in the year 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16.
“It is shocking the university pockets such a huge amount from students. Is it a money-making racket ” asked Mr Durve.
An earlier RTI by Mr Durve — reported by this paper — had revealed that nearly 1.2 lakh students had applied for revaluation over a period of five years hinting at the poor quality of assessment.
Authorities, however, ridiculed the insinuation that the university was pocketing huge sums of money. They said the money was being collected as fees for revaluation on a non-profit basis.
“The amount charged by the university towards revaluation is actually spent on the process itself. At times the university ends up paying more on one revaluation application,” said Dr M.A. Khan, registrar, MU.
The expenses that the university has to bear for the process include appointing an examiner and paying them. Examiners involved in the reassessment are paid per answer book and also given travel allowance as well as other facilities. Apart from that, the university has to hire people just to trace answer books from among lakhs, reissue marksheets, maintain records among others. All these involve a cost that the university covers from the fees collected.
“The allegation that the amount being collected through revaluation is an income is totally false and if looked at holistically one realises that the amount is insufficient to cover all expenses,” said Dr Khan.