Many students yet to receive B.Voc degrees, SPPU blames faulty entries in convocation form
The SPPU convocation was held in September 2025. Students are supposed to fill an online form to receive their degrees. Multiple students from Abasaheb Garware College B.Voc in Mass Communication/Media convergence said they had not received their degrees.
Students of autonomous colleges affiliated to Savitribai Phule Pune University await B.Voc degrees months after convocation, with delays attributed to errors in online convocation form entries. (file)
Many students from at least two autonomous colleges affiliated to the Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) are yet to receive their Bachelor of Vocation (B.Voc) degrees, months after the 2025 convocation in September 2025. According to the Examination Department at SPPU, the delay is due to faulty entries by students in the online convocation form. Students say that they have not been informed about the issue, raising questions about the correction mechanism to prevent delays in dispatch of degrees.
The SPPU convocation was held in September 2025. Students are supposed to fill an online form to receive their degrees. Multiple students from Abasaheb Garware College B.Voc in Mass Communication/Media convergence said they had not received their degrees. “I visited the SPPU exam department around November and I was told that there was some technical issue which is why I had not received the degree. They said I need not visit SPPU and I will get the degree by post. However, I have still not received it. None of my friends have received the degree,” said a student.
A majority of the students from the Fergusson College B.Voc in Media and Communication course who passed out in 2025 have also not received their degrees. Two students The Indian Express spoke to said that most of their batch had no timeline on when they would receive the degree.
Prof Prabhakar Desai, Head of Examination Department at SPPU, said that faulty selection by students in the convocation form was to blame. “In total for this convocation, we received over 98,000 applications out of which over 4600 student data entries were faulty. This can be anything from wrong PRN to wrong faculty, to wrong date of birth. We try to resolve these issues at our level and it takes some time to go through this much data.”
“In the case of Garware college B.Voc, there is a mismatch in 12 students who have selected the wrong ‘Faculty’ option. There is some common error in the Fergusson forms as well but currently I can’t say exactly what it is. However, we have now spoken to the authorities at Garware college, and will speak to Fergusson college as well. Their degrees should be available in the next two days depending on the response from the college,” Prof Desai told The Indian Express on February 26.
Dr Prafulla Shede, Controller of Examination at Garware college, said, “The students are aware of the faculty from the first year itself and I don’t know why they imputed the wrong information while filling. But we have decided countermeasures for this and communicated with university authorities. Whenever we share this data from our exam section to the university we will share the file with the HODs as well so they can share this information with the outgoing batch.”
A Garware college student said he had selected the ‘Arts’ option. “We were not guided by the college as to what option we had to select. I visited my college’s exam department in October and they told me to go to the SPPU exam department. At SPPU I was told that the certificates are not yet printed. My parents visited in Jan and they were told the same. If there was some issue in our form entries, we should have been told when we visited and also how we could correct it. Even if we have made a mistake in our form, does it mean that our degrees will be so delayed?”
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Head of the Examination Department at Fergusson College Prof Nandkumar Mandlik told The Indian Express that the department had not yet received any complaints from students regarding the issue. “Our B.Voc course is under the science faculty. If students come to us we will try to help them in the issue they are facing,” he said.
Soham Shah is a Correspondent with The Indian Express, based in Pune. A journalism graduate with a background in fact-checking, he brings a meticulous and research-oriented approach to his current reporting.
Professional Background
Role: Correspondent coverig education and city affairs in Pune.
Specialization: His primary beat is education, but he also maintains a strong focus on civic issues, public health, human rights, and state politics.
Key Strength: Soham focuses on data-driven reporting on school and college education, government reports, and public infrastructure.
Recent Notable Articles (Late 2025)
His late 2025 work highlights a transition from education-centric reporting to hard-hitting investigative and human-rights stories:
1. Investigations & Governance
"Express Impact: Mother's name now a must to download birth certificate from PMC site" (Dec 20, 2025): Reporting on a significant policy change by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) following his earlier reports on gender inclusivity in administrative documents.
"44-Acre Mahar Land Controversy: In June, Pune official sought land eviction at Pawar son firm behest" (Nov 9, 2025): An investigative piece on real estate irregularities involving high-profile political families.
2. Education & Campus Life
Faculty crisis at SPPU hits research, admin work: 62% of govt-sanctioned posts vacant, over 75% in many depts (Sept 12, 2025): An investigative piece on professor vacancies at Savitribai Phule Pune University.
"Maharashtra’s controversial third language policy: Why National Curriculum Framework recommends a third language from Class 6" (July 2): This detailed piece unpacks reasons behind why the state's move to introduce a third language from class 1 was controversial.
"Decline in number of schools, teachers in Maharashtra but student enrolment up: Report" (Jan 2025): Analyzing discrepancies in the state's education data despite rising student numbers.
3. Human Rights & Social Issues
"Aanchal Mamidawar was brave after her family killed her boyfriend" (Dec 17, 2025): A deeply personal and hard-hitting opinion piece/column on the "crime of love" and honor killings in modern India.
"'People disrespect the disabled': Meet the man who has become face of racist attacks on Indians" (Nov 29, 2025): A profile of a Pune resident with severe physical deformities who became the target of global online harassment, highlighting issues of disability and cyber-bullying.
Signature Style
Soham is known for his civil-liberties lens. His reporting frequently champions the rights of the marginalized—whether it's students fighting for campus democracy, victims of regressive social practices, or residents struggling with crumbling urban infrastructure (as seen in his "Breathless Pune" contributions). He is adept at linking hyper-local Pune issues to larger national conversations about law and liberty.
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