Delay in providing degree certificates in MU : Time to change

Jarnail Singh
In pursuance of orders of High Court of Manipur, I took over as Administrator of Manipur University (MU) on 12th October 2018. After a couple of weeks, one thing which surprised me most was that the Vice Chancellor was required to sign each degree certificate. I had not heard of such practice in any other university. Almost daily, a substantial time of officials at different levels in MU administration is spent in preparing degree certificates, entering these in registers in bunches of ten to fifteen, sending these up the channel to VC for his signature. Through same channel these certificates come down before these are given to students.
MU has about 120 affiliated colleges, including two medical colleges, 46 departments and a constituent college called Manipur Institute of Technology. Annua- lly, on an average, about 22,000 students graduate from University’s Bachelor’s, Master’s and PhD degree programmes. Ordinarily, it is expected that the students should get their degree certificates from MU within about 15 days of their graduation. But this is not happening as MU is not able to prepare degree certificates of all graduated students so quickly. It is not physically possible for any person, leave aside the VC who has academic and administrative works to attend, to sign 22,000 degree certificates in 15 days or so. Even if VC signs 100 degree certificates every day, it will take about 220 days to sign all certificates. The magnitude of this problem can be gauged from the fact that in the years 2018-2020, when I was Administrator/VC of MU, some degree certificates I was signing for students who had graduated as far back as in 2009, ten years before !
This seemed like a joke. ‘How were the students managing their post-graduation affairs for last five to ten years without degree certificates?’ I used to wonder.
It is well accepted that the university degrees and certificates can be forged and faked irrespective of whether a university provides ink-signed or facsimile- signature stamped degrees. Almost all universities, the world over, provide degree certificates within one to two weeks of graduation with facsimile-signature stamped, even without the students applying to the universities to get their degree certificates. But in MU, students have to apply for getting their degree certificates. I was interested in improving this system in MU so that the graduated students could get degree certificates within two to four weeks of passing their programmes, and also without applying for it. I had seen how Panjab University where I studied supplied my degree certificates within one month of graduation. I checked about a dozen universities in India and abroad and all of these universities provide the degree certificates with facsi- mile signatures of authorized persons.
To guard against the submission of counterfeit / fake degree certificates, most universities directly obtain the transcripts and academic credentials of the applicant student from the previous university of the applicant student. Of course, the applicant student has to pay a small amount as cost of correspondence between the new university and the old university. Similarly, to guard against frauds, the prospective employer of a person also verifies the academic credentials from the passed-out University directly without involvement of that person. This direct communication between the new university or employers and the university from where the applicant had passed degree makes the system fraud proof.
The personal signature of the Vice Chancellor does not add value to degree certificates, even though some may attach sentimental value to it. Moreover, giving a degree certificate after five to ten years, even though it might be ink signed by the Vice Chancellor, as is being done in MU, is not of much use to a student. A student would need the degree certificate with him or her within 15 to 30 days, so that he or she can apply somewhere for admission or for a job.
Considering this, I decided to simplify and improve the process and format of degree certificates in MU and use facsimile signatures. A committee under a senior Professor was constituted to examine the system prevalent in other universities in India and abroad and suggest a suitable process and format of degree certificates which could be adopted. Unfortunately, the Chairman of the committee did not hold any meeting in spite of my advice to hold meeting early.
In the meantime the Covid-19 epidemic created problems for teaching as well as conduct of examinations in MU and matter relating to simplification of degree certificate process and format took a back seat. The writer served as Chief Secretary of the Government of Manipur and later as Administrator of Manipur University