Mumbai University — Non issuance of final degree certificate

Address:

Mumbai City, Maharashtra, 400003

I am abbas kabir, a mumbai resident and a master of pharmacy (M. Pharm) student in the university of mumbai (Uom). I am writing this mail to express my deep grievance and to bring to your kind notice the enormity of the uom, because of which we students are suffering to very large extent. This mail is written in order that the education/human resource ministry is aware of our plight and with a hope that a quick and strict action is taken to amend the ongoing atrocity.

The m. Pharm course is a two year (Officially) partly by paper-partly by research program in the uom.In this 2 year course, a student needs to clear two semester examinations, finish a research project and submit a thesis to the uom post which the university arranges a viva-voce and upon clearing the viva-voce, the student is awarded the final m. Pharm degree certificate.In my case, i was enrolled for the m. Pharm program in august 2012 and successfully submitted my thesis in december 2014 (Within the defined university timelines). The thesis submission marks the end of the course at the student’s end. Post thesis submission, it took the university 8 months to arrange my viva-voce (August 2015) and after which the final m. Pharm degree was to be awarded. However, today (June 2016), it marks the completion of 1.5 years post thesis submission and it is a disgrace that the final degree certificate is still awaited and no one in the university has any clue regarding when it is going to be issued.

Post thesis submissions, part of the students start with their careers while the remaining pursues higher education (Phd). Be it any case, completion of viva voce and having the final degree certificate is a mandate as it is an essential requirement for admission into the phd program and to clear the background check conducted by any company before hiring.In our case, we students were helpless and idle for 8 months post thesis submission, as our viva voce was not conducted then. Also, after the viva voce, 10 months have passed and there is no hope that the final degree certificate would be issued in the near future. We spend lakhs worth of rupees to pay our graduation and post graduation fees in the hope that it would help secure a good job. However, it is very unfortunate that having graduated from the uom, the chances of a student securing a good job doesn’t depend on the student’s caliber and academic records but primarily depends on the university’s administration. Be it securing a job in india/abroad or pursuing further education in india/abroad, we students have no option but to waste our precious years in the hope that the university will soon issue the degree certificate and on the other hand, the university is least concerned about our plight.

By writing this mail, we hope that the university, the ministry and the concerned authorities are awakened and they probe into the issue and amend the current situation immediately.

Thanking you.

Sincerely,
Abbas saifi kabir