Students write to VC, demand facilities

THE ASIAN AGE. | AISHWARYA IYER

Published : Jan 23, 2019, 2:16 am IST

Updated : Jan 23, 2019, 2:16 am IST

Students who have cleared the Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) are struggling, especially at the time of submitting their thesis research.

Mumbai: Ph.D. students of the University of Mumbai (MU) have written a letter to the vice-chancellor Prof. Suhas Pednekar regarding non-availability of a computer facility and Internet access in the library. According to the students, due to this, all doctrinal-level thesis are at stake.

Furthermore, they have demanded that the plagiarism software be made available in the library as well as a typing facility, lockers and barcode system.

As per the University Grants Commission (UGC) Regulations 2017, “Every faculty, researcher and M.Phil./Ph.D. student sho-uld be provided an account in plagiarism detection tools for checking the content of their scripts”. However, no such software has been provided to the students, and if provided, it is not upgraded.

Students who have clea-red the Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) are struggling, especially at the time of submitting their thesis research. “Most of my thesis are handwritten at first and then I use my friend’s laptop to type it out and prepare the final draft. As for the research, we sometimes have to use other mediums for getting our research inputs like cyber cafes, books, etc. It would have been better if a good Internet facility is provided with a computer or laptop,” said a student.

The students also said that there was no digital security for their work. “If any of my work is plagiarised by anyone, there won’t be proof of my work since there is no place to store my thesis or rese-arch. If the software for checking plagiarism is made available, we won’t be constantly terrified abo-ut our research being plagiarised,” said Shomit Sal-unkhe, a M.Phil. student.

Furthermore, the letter mentioned about the non-availability of international journal or research publication facility for students about their research topics. “This could be the cause why research is hampered day by day. While we want to do so many things, there is no way everything can be successful without having enough facilities at the college or university level,” added Mr Salunkhe.