MYSORE: The University of Mysore will be forced to arrange for external evaluation of examinations conducted for postgraduate students of the English Department as most of the staff have been barred from taking up evaluation work.

This follows a report by the Examination Malpractices and Lapses Inquiry Committee which looked into allegations of irregularities in evaluation and charges of insertion of additional sheets to main answer scripts of one of the students during the first semester examination in October last.

The Vice-Chancellor, J. Shashidhar Prasad, told The Hindu that a judicial inquiry has been initiated to pin responsibility and hold the persons accountable as the committee that submitted its report could only establish the malpractice without doubt but could not ascertain who is responsible for it.

Hence, the entire staff except C.P. Ravichandra have been barred from taking up any examination work for a varying period of time, Prof. Shashidhar Prasad said and added that the university will not compromise on its integrity nor will it hesitate to initiate stern action to uphold academic standards.

Officials of the administration wing of the university said this is for the first time in the history of the university that most of the staff of a single department have been disqualified from taking up examination work though the English Department suffered a similar predicament 15 years ago when there were charges of nepotism.

"We will be forced to rope in external staff to conduct the evaluation work," they said and pointed out that it will not be difficult for the university to procure external evaluators. However, it is the reputation of the department that will be marred by such incidents, they added.

It was pointed out that the irregularity surfaced during the second evaluation, which is normally conducted by external staff, while it did not come to light during the internal evaluation conducted by the department staff. Hence, the inquiry committee found fault with the staff for their collective negligence and their inability to detect the lapse.

Distance education

Meanwhile, the university has temporarily frozen admission to its distance education course supposed to have commenced this academic year but ran into rough weather following objections by the Governor.

Sources confirmed that the admission process has been stalled in view of the Governor's displeasure but expressed confidence that the distance education programme will not be jeopardised.

Prof. Shashidhar Prasad, who was in Bangalore on Thursday to discuss the issue with the Governor, said the latter has only sought a few clarifications pertaining to the distance education programme and is not against it in principle.

"It is not true that he is opposed to the university launching the distance education programme but he only wished that certain points be clarified and has sent the circular to all universities," he said.

It is learnt that that the Governor will hold another round of discussions with the Registrar of the university and the Secretary before taking a decision on the issue. The next round of talks will be held in Bangalore on Friday.

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