After allegations of paper leakages during the previous semester-end engineering examination in June this year, the Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) has decided to step up security measures. The plan is to put in place a secure question paper delivery system through the Virtual Private Network.
The Registrar of the university, in a circular, has listed out the infrastructure that needs to be established and has asked individual colleges to submit a report on their readiness by the end of this week. Currently, the university delivers its question paper to colleges online, minutes before the examination begins. As per the new system, principals of constitute and affiliated colleges have to organise separate gadgets for this purpose. These could be computers, a static IP address and smartphones, among others.
Colleges have also been instructed to identify a separate technical support team. The circular also makes it mandatory for them to have a CCTV surveillance system that can be accessed online. The CCTVs will record the entire process from downloading and printing the papers to distribution.
VTU has decided to introduce the measures after members of the executive council demanded a third party audit of the online dispatch of question papers. Many students had alleged that the question paper had been leaked an hour prior to the examination, but university officials had denied it.
An executive council member on condition of anonymity said: “Last June. we asked colleges to provide CCTV footage, but many did not. During the next semester end examination, we will set up a designated team that will monitor all CCTV footage real time.”
Students have hailed the security measures. Rahul B., an engineering student, said: “Students in my college had received question papers on various social networking sites, an hour before the last semester examination. The online system was meant to reduce paper leakages, but owing to negligence on the part of colleges, the system was misused. With these measures, hopefully it will be a fair examination system.”
