MU to create question banks to prevent paper leaks

Once bitten, twice shy. Following the leak of three papers during the engineering examination in May, Mumbai University (MU) has decided to form a question bank that would be referred to while setting papers.

After adding sufficient number of questions to the bank, MU will send it to colleges or upload it on its website.

A meeting of Chairman and heads of Boards of Studies of all subjects, deans, senior professors and teachers was held on Wednesday to discuss the issue.

"It is a lengthy but essential process. Most foreign universities create question banks. The idea is to make the examination system more transparent and curb malpractices. Since there are only 61 engineering colleges and nearly 80 colleges of education, we decided to first create a question bank for these," said Subhash Deo, Director of Examination.

The process of preparing question banks for subjects under engineering, technology and education has begun and the bank will be uploaded on MU website by the end of this academic year. Arts, commerce and science question banks would take at least another year-and-a-half.

"We are discussing how the banks can be created using technology. The aim is to create banks of thousands of questions. Once each bank has 5,000 and above questions, we will upload the data on the website for students," said Deo and added, "Once the banks are ready, we plan to use technology to pick questions randomly and create a set of question papers for each subject."

The varsity has started training teachers. "Workshops and training sessions are being organised for teachers of engineering colleges since July 21 to discuss the format of question papers and use of technology in conducting examinations and assessing papers. Around 1,000 teachers have been trained. Workshops were also held for BEd training colleges," said a senior faculty member who attended Wednesday's meeting.

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