Madras University to constitute team to probe scam at study centres

Chennai, Dec 23 (IANS) The University of Madras will constitute an inquiry committee on Thursday to probe into the scam related to persons not registered with the university writing the degree examinations.

The university syndicate will meet on Thursday and an inquiry committee will be subsequently constituted, sources said.

According to University sources, an initial inquiry conducted has revealed that 116 people, who were not registered as students with the Institute of Distance Education, had taken the examination and they were about to receive the degrees.

It may be recollected that the University Grants Commission (UGC) had in 2019 allowed all those who had registered since 1980-81 to complete their course by writing the arrear examinations.

The candidates would be awarded degrees or diploma based on the examination they have taken and the number of papers cleared. The candidates were allowed to take the examinations twice, in December 2019 and in May 2020 which were delayed due to Covid-19 pandemic.

The delayed examinations were held in December 2020 and candidates were allowed to write the examinations from their homes.

As the university collected fees online several dubious candidates had paid the exam fee and exam registration numbers were generated for them also.

University officials feel that the study centres had manually registered the candidates and those who were registered would only be able to pay the examination fees and with the exams being conducted online, it became easy for study centres to include unregistered candidates.

Madras University Controller of Examination, K. Pandian while speaking to IANS said, "There were anomalies when we started preparing the degree certificates and this seems to be the fault of the study centres. They enroll students and provide numbers."