The entrance exam results for various post-graduate courses at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) have stirred up a row with many aspirants claiming errors in the merit list, and several technical glitches and loopholes in how the examination itself was conducted.
The MCQ-based online examination was conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) on 18 October – and the results were declared on 30 October.
Students are voicing their grievances on Twitter, using the hashtag #IIMCEntranceExamScam. They have appealed for a re-examination. However IIMC has already begun its admission process.
Three Merit Lists Issued
The Quint reached out to students who’ve made it to the merit list and those who missed it. All of them pointed out the errors and discrepancies in the multiple merit lists that the institute released.
In the first version of the merit list, a few names were published in both the General and OBC categories, a student who wanted to remain anonymous told The Quint.
“How can the same students get admission twice?” she asked.
The cut-off for General category in English Journalism was 90 percentile, whereas Hindi, Radio & TV Journalism was at 94 percentile. Advertising and Public Relations cut-off was 98 percentile, Odia Journalism at 80 percentile, and Urdu, Malayalam Journalism at 72 percentile.
Of over 4,000 students who appeared for the exam, four of them scored 100 percentile marks, and more than ten students scored above 96 percentile.
After the initial list created a controversy, the official Twitter handle of IIMC admitted that the list had technical errors.
The list was re-published on 31 October at 2 pm. In this version, a few students’ results, whose names were on the merit list, were withheld, raising suspicion.
“It is very fishy, because how can students’ names appear on the merit list when their results are withheld?” another student told The Quint.
Anand Pradhan, a professor at IIMC, then clarified on Twitter that the NTA had found that 28 candidates had indulged in malpractices, and their results had been withheld.
When The Quint reached out to Pradhan on the allegations, he said he was not authorised to comment on the issue.
Bidisha, another student who appeared for the exam, stated that a third list was published on 2 November without any intimation to students and a few new names were added to it. She also added that the admission process has already begun, putting students who appeared for the exam in a fix because they did not get a fair process at admission.
Technical Glitches, Copying During Exam
One of the students The Quint spoke to said that the merit list was inconsistent.
“A student who scored 86 marks got the admission but a student who scored 92 did not get it.”
A student who did not wish to be named said that there were many technical glitches during the mock test and so they had requested to change the AI before the actual exam. “Each and every one of us used the technical glitch to our convenience,” he said.
Another student said that it was very convenient to copy and cheat in the exam as the AI was very weak. He said that the students just got away by cheating because they had the opportunity to copy.
“Students had the opportunity to cheat even though the web-cam was switched on, as it did not have a 360 degree surveillance. Many cheated and scored above 96.”
Few students say that the university has not provided them with any answer keys, which they can use to cross-check their answers.
“I had scored only 77 but I know for a fact that most of my answers were correct and I was expecting my name to be on the merit list. Without the answer key, I am not able to verify that I had written the test correctly.”
When The Quint spoke to some students who got admission, they stated that the process was fair, as the questions asked in the exams were moderately easy. A student commented that the institution had agreed that they had made a mistake on the first list and released the rectified merit list after.
“IIMC accepted the mistake in first result and then they again released the second result. But still, there were few mistakes; so they are said that they will looking into it and will rectify it. The selection process seems fair but they had made 3-4 mistakes on the merit list.”
This is the first time that students have been selected right after the entrance exam. Previously, after the first list is released, Group Discussion and Personal Interviews are conducted to choose the right candidate.
(The Quint’s calls to the ADG of IIMC, Mr K Satish Nambudiripad, went unanswered.)
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