Colleges under MUHS to assess answer papers online

Mumbai: Starting this academic year, assessment of answer papers for examinations at all medical colleges under the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS) will be done online. MUHS officials said moving assessments to the online mode will significantly reduce the chances of errors and help declare results on time.

Currently, the work of scanning answer sheets of medical postgraduate examinations is underway. The state has a total of 536 colleges offering different branches affiliated with MUHS.

MUHS has introduced a new pattern of assessment on the lines of the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences in Karnataka following a recent visit by MUHS officials to the southern state to review the online mode of written examination.

Dr Sandeep Kadu, controller of examinations, MUHS, said, “This system has been beneficial in terms of reducing human intervention in paper examinations and getting results on time. The online paper assessment was tested during the supplementary examinations for BDS (dental) and MBBS a few months ago. The results of both these exams were declared in two days.”

An experienced private organisation has been appointed, and all control over it will be with the university. Till now, around 30,000 answer sheets have been assessed online.

“We set up assessment centres in every college that are under CCTV surveillance. Once the professor starts assessing answer sheets after logging in, they will get an OTP on their phone that will record all steps involved with the assessments,” Kadu added.

Every year, MUHS conducts eight faculty examinations that are given by 70,000 to 80,000 students, which means every season, a medical professor assesses around 3.50 lakh answer sheets.

“Under the guidance of Dr Madhuri Kanitkar, vice chancellor of MUHS, we are implementing online assessment step-by-step. We are planning to implement online assessment in all the courses by the end of the coming academic year 2023–24,” Kadu said.