Mumbai: While Mumbai University is known for misspelling students’ names in convocation certificates, this time it has misspelled its own name. Convocation certificates of ‘University of Mumabai‘ over the logo have been dispatched to several affiliated colleges for the graduating batch of 2023-24. Many colleges have either returned the certificates or are in the process of doing so.
Misspelling its own name is just embarrassing for Mumbai University, said a city college principal. Another said the misspelt name above the logo makes the certificates appear bogus. “Imagine students using the certificates for jobs or for higher studies,” he said.
MU’s convocation ceremony was held on Jan 7. While 1.64 lakh students graduated in the year 2023-24, it is not clear how many have already received the degrees with the misspelt university name.
“This was definitely not expected of the university. Despite this obvious spelling error, the convocation ceremony was completed and the degrees were awarded. Reprinting the certificates will cause a delay in students receiving them,” said another principal, adding that many of them have already secured admissions for higher studies or jobs and may have not even noticed this error. Now, all these certificates will have to be recalled, said the principal.
The MU, which had outsourced the printing of convocation certificates to a Hyderabad-based company, is getting the errors rectified. An official spokesperson said that some certificates were issued with typographical mistakes due to printing issues, without specifying the numbers. “We are rectifying it. Rest assured, the university will provide fresh certificates to students at no additional cost,” said the spokesperson, adding that the university has already started addressing the issue after it was brought to their notice. He further said that the certificates have not yet been dispatched to all colleges, and they would send the corrected ones to the remaining institutes.
In the last few years, a principal pointed out, the number of errors in convocation certificates has reduced as MU allows students to verify their details and make corrections, if any, before sending them for printing.