Retakes scheduled after IoBM papers leaked

Management Accounting one of the casualties of the spring exam session

KARACHI: At least 160 students at the Institute of Business Management (IoBM) have been asked to retake an exam after the administration learnt that a question paper was leaked.

“The issue was there but has been taken care of,” said IoBM’s Student Affairs manager Parvez Jamil while describing the matter as an old issue. “For the future, the institution has assumed few arrangements to ensure a fool-proof examination system.”

The suspicion arose after a few students scored “exceptionally well” in a subject offered to BBA final-year students. When a few students approached their teachers to inquire about their performance in the exams they were told that some of them had scored 40 out of 40 marks which, according to their teacher, Syed Ajaz Ahmed, was simply not possible. “Management Accounting is considered the toughest course in the BBA programme and most of the students fail this subject in the first attempt,” said another student.

The administration came up with the solution of a retake for all four sections. The business administration department was not alone, however, as the question papers of other departments were also allegedly leaked and their students have been asked to sit the exams again.

The papers date to spring semester exams held this year in May and sold from the examination department for between Rs15,000 and Rs20,000, The Express Tribune has learnt. The administration has fired a number of people from the examination department.

Students were on vacation from May 10 to June 10. Some of them received an official email on May 16 saying that they had to reappear. Some students did not agree with the decision and even went to the offices of IoBM Rector Talib Syed Karim and Executive Director Administration Sabina Mohsin to register their concern.

A final-year business administration student* told The Express Tribune that he felt it was not justified for them to announce “collective punishment” for all 160 students.

The May results have not been announced.

*Names have not been disclosed to protect student identities.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 30^th, 2012.