One entrance test, 2 results: PhD law aspirants stumped in Mumbai

MUMBAI: Law graduates aiming to pursue their doctoral studies at Mumbai University are in a quandary. After receiving a result of the entrance test with details of their score and eligibility, they received a second, but rather different version of the report card.
Mumbai University conducted online PhD entrance tests for various subjects from March 25-27, the results of which were declared on Saturday.However, law aspirants, who took the exam on March 27, claimed they received two results with different scores.
“There was a technical glitch and we have told law aspirants that they must go by the second result,” said the university’s exam head, Vinod Patil. While some saw scores doubling from 30 to 60, catapulting them from ineligible to eligible for admission in a span of few hours, others found their scores drop from 48 to 43, but it didn’t matter as the minimum score for PhD eligibility is 50.
Candidates said there was a software glitch during the exam, and several calls to the MU met with no response for some time.
“I had attempted questions totalling 60 marks when the software just did not load the next question. After several calls to the helpline, I was told to log out and sign in again. Merely 10 minutes were left and I could answer 20 questions,” said an aspirant. But these 20 questions were the same ones she had answered earlier. “I realised my session had restarted from the beginning, and not from where I had left off after the first 60 questions. I am unable to understand how I scored 49 if I attempted only 20 questions,” said the student, who missed the eligibility criteria by a mark.
“I am not sure if the scores of the second session, when she logged in again, got recorded or not. There are very few students who are keen to pursue a PhD in law and most of them are serious candidates. As there was a technical glitch during the test, we are demanding that the Mumbai University conduct the PhD entrance test for law candidates again,” said Sachin Pawar, president, student law council.