Imbroglio on question papers in Thiruvalluvar varsity continues

VELLORE: More skeletons regarding the question paper imbroglio in which Vellore-based Thiruvalluvar University (TU) is currently involved continued to tumble out of the cupboard, as more students and teachers reacted to the DT Next expose on November 14.

While Minister for Higher Education K Ponmudy has ordered an inquiry into the issue, varsity officials refused to react on how this confusion occurred in the first place. “Question paper setters will have to reveal the truth once an impartial inquiry is started,” a Vellore college professor seeking anonymity said.

However, once the issue was reported, many UG Mathematics and Chemistry students who attended the Physics paper (allied subject) revealed that the November/December 2022 and April/May 2023 question papers were one and the same.

“A student who failed the above paper in the December 2022 exam wrote the same paper five months later,” said former professor Kumar Subbu. Similarly, PG Mathematics I year students who failed the April/May 2023 paper in Real Analysis found that they were given the same question paper when they wrote their arrears exams in November/December 2023.

It now transpires that though the 2021 syllabus changed for the Operational Research (OR) paper for PG mathematics students after 2022, students who wrote the exam on November 11 found that while 2 of the 5 units had questions from the new syllabus the remaining three units had questions from the old syllabus thus resulting in no student being able to attend even a single question.

“The issue involves a total of 57 marks and hence if the university has to award full marks for these ‘out of syllabus’ questions as is the usual practice then all students stand to pass handsomely,” the professor added.

Asked whether the university had been informed of the issue, college teachers said, “Exams are still under way and hence we have to wait for the valuation to start to learn how the varsity plans to react to this.”