According to sources, five post-graduate students of the Science faculty have submitted identical dissertations for their Master's examinations. Titled `A Report on Visit to Padra Oil Field, Cambay Project', the 123-page monographs are reportedly duplicates of each other, down to the last punctuation mark, and, what's more, all have been graded `A'! (The Indian Express has a copy of these reports.)

As if this wasn't enough, the dissertations have all been blessed by the guides concerned! And to top it all, this is supposed to be a practice common to all faculties.

``There's nothing wrong with it'', say the five students, maintaining they had had their guides' go-ahead. The guides -- S J Patel and L S Chamyal -- are equally blase: ``Since the students went to the same area, it's only natural they come up with asimilar project study'', Chamyal says. ``Since they were together, their observations would also be similar.''

But down to the last comma and semi-colon?! Chamyal tries to pass the responsibility on to the ONGC, whose oilfields the students ``studied''. He says, ``The corporation oversaw the entire project. So we could neither disagree with the ONGC nor question them. In fact, there's nothing much we (the guides) can do about such project-based reports.''

According to university sources, post-graduate students are usually sent for their dissertation project work in groups. It is also perfectly permissible for two or more students to work on the same subject, under the same guide if -- and this is a big if -- the method of research, contents of the project and references are different.

``The same holds true for PhD theses as well. The subjects may be the same, but the students have to adopt different methods to reach their conclusions which, too, have to be different'', say sources. ``Otherwise how couldthey be marked?''

The examiners of these five students would be able to answer that: With the same grade!

On a more serious note, however, senior faculty professors question the practice. ``What's the point of asking five students to submit the same project report?'' they ask. The unspoken criticism of the guides is clear since, according to a senior professor, a student goes ahead with a dissertation only after the guide has cleared the subject and set the guidelines.

Apparently unaware of the controversy, Science faculty dean Bonny Pilo told this paper, ``This is not supposed to happen in the faculty, let alone at the post-graduate level. If something like this is detected, both the students and the guides will be taken to task.''

While denying such a practice in the faculty, Pilo, however, asserts that dissertations are graded only after the candidate's depth of knowledge of the project is tested in an interview.

THE WAY WE DO IT

Students first select a subject and inform theguide

They submit a synopsis of the report to the guide; following his consent, they start work on the project

Students have to mention their sources and references

They have to consult the guide at every stage of their work.