Med college goof-up puts girl’s PhD in jeopardy

She has also paid course fees twice since then. For almost a year,as Kaul continued her research work,she had no idea about the goof-up. In October 2010,when she went to Mumbai University’s thesis section,she was told by the authorities that her research was not valid as she was not registered.

“That day I got the shock of my life. I requested the university authorities to re-check as I couldn’t believe this could happened to me. I even asked the authorities to check if my name was misspelt in the form. Neither was I registered nor was my fees sent to the university. I had once paid Rs 7,290,including registration fees,and Rs 6,451 the second time,” Kaul said.

The distraught student then confronted the college authorities and the goof-up came to light. Kaul added,“Finally,my registration was done in November 2010. Now the problem is that I have already completed 90 per cent of my research work and the university says it will consider my registration as per new norms,which means I will have to appear for an PhD entrance test. If that is the case,I’ll suffer for no fault of mine.”

Dr Pravin Bangar,the assistant medical officer at KEM Hospital said members of a student’s union had approached authorities and that is how officials found out about Kaul’s case. “We are enquiring about the matter with our academic team. Only then would we be able to comment on this issue,” he said.

However,according to Kaul,the GS Medical College had already sent an explanation letter to Mumbai University on the matter. Sainath Durge of the Maharashtra Navnirman Vidyarthi Sena said the college must see to it that the student does not suffer. “We are following this issue and are planning to meet the vice-chancellor,” he said.