Three yrs on, French grads wait for certificate

Updated on: Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Three years have passed since Lavina D’Souza and 10 of her batchmates graduated in French from Mumbai University, but they are yet to receive their convocation certificates.

In fact, owing to the inordinate delay on the part of the university, Lavina’s application for immigration to study in a university in Canada was rejected. Now, she will have to wait for at least one more year before she can go in for higher studies.

“We have visited every education official possible at Mumbai University but to no avail,” said Augustine, her mother. Both her parents stay in Goa but they have to make trips to the city every few weeks, hoping that some official or the other would be able to help them get the certificate.

Lavina, who graduated in 2008, said her troubles began the day she got her result, which came with an error. “The result stated that I had finished the third year of a five-year course, while my degree was meant for a three-year course. I immediately sent it back and the university authorities took a year to issue me a correct copy of the results,” she said. Once she got the corrected results, Lavina applied to a university in Canada and also submitted her documents for immigration in September last year. In January, she received a reply from the immigration authorities that her application had been rejected as she could not produce a graduation certificate. “We rushed to Mumbai University to ask about her certificate but nobody seems to be answerable anymore. Even the department of French had no clue about the certificates,” said Augustine.

Now, Lavina does not know when she would receive her graduation certificate, let alone if she would be able to apply to any foreign university for further studies. “After all the visits and letters to the university officials, I was hoping that I would get the certificate at this year’s convocation. However, that did not happen and now, I don’t know when I will get my certificate or if I ever will,” she said.

Controller of examinations of Mumbai University Vilas Shinde claimed that he was not aware of the issue, though Lavina’s parents said they left a letter for him at his office a few weeks ago. “If it is about just one or two students, there might be a minor misunderstanding. But since this is about the entire batch, I will surely look into the matter on Monday,” said Shinde.

Three yrs on, French grads wait for certificate

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