MUMABAI: IIT-Bombay has postponed a set of mid-semester exams to give a committee time to frame an SOP and revise rules to handle academic misconduct.Last Saturday, a professor was named in an FIR by the parents of a 2nd-year student who committed suicide.Faculty members have demanded a clear standard operating procedure (SOP) that spells out, step by step, how invigilators should deal with students suspected of exam malpractice. The tests scheduled for Sept 26-27 will now be held on Oct 10-11, with the timetable remaining unchanged, students were told Thursday.A communication sent by Siddhant Gupta, general secretary, academic affairs (UG), said the postponement is intended to give the new committee, which has equal student representation, time to draw up a “clear and student-friendly” SOP for invigilators and revise the rules governing academic misconduct.The move assumes significance amid the debate on how students accused of exam violations are dealt with on campus and whether existing procedures leave too much discretion to individual faculty members or invigilators.Faculty members have specifically emphasised the need for detailed instructions on how examinations are to be conducted and how suspected cases of misconduct should be handled. The proposed SOP is expected to lay down the procedure to be followed at every stage, from the point at which an invigilator suspects a violation to the subsequent action against the student.“Faculty have emphasised the need for clear, step-by-step instructions on conducting examinations and handling incidents of suspected academic misconduct, including the procedure and actions to be followed at each stage,” the letter said.The institute has said the objective is to ensure that examinations are conducted in a fair and consistent manner, while also giving due consideration to students’ concerns. Student stakeholders were consulted before the exams were postponed, the communication said.The revised SOP and academic misconduct rules will not come into force immediately. These will first be placed before the IIT-B senate for approval, said the letter sent to campus residents. “The exercise could lead to a more standardised framework for dealing with suspected examination violations, particularly by defining what an invigilator can do at the examination hall, what must be documented, and what procedure should follow before further disciplinary action is taken,” said a civil engineering faculty member of IIT-B.
