‘Hacking’ charge puts teacher groups on a collision course in Keralam’s MG University

A clash has emerged between two teacher groups over control of an online system for uploading undergraduate internal marks at Mahatma Gandhi University in Kottayam, Kerala. The pro-United Democratic Front (UDF) Syndicate recently assumed control at the university, but the Congress-backed Kerala Private College Teachers’ Association (KPCTA) claims the system was hacked by the Left-affiliated All Kerala Private College Teachers’ Association (AKPCTA).

The KPCTA alleges that the university’s internal-mark uploading portal was compromised, while the AKPCTA denies the charge, stating the system is functioning normally and questioning the hacking claim. The controversy revolves around the MGU-FYUGP, a four-year undergraduate Honours programme where students’ Continuous Comprehensive Assessment (CCA) marks are uploaded through a web application called the MGU-CCA Generator.

This application was developed on October 14, 2024, and its link was officially shared with FYUGP coordinators in all 280 affiliated colleges. The KPCTA claims that after the first four semesters of students admitted in 2024 were uploaded, the portal became non-functional, and only AKPCTA members began distributing links to the same form via their communication groups, stating that only the user ID and password were changed.

The KPCTA terms this unauthorized access as a cybercrime and raises concerns about potential disruptions to the examination schedule and the compromise of students’ academic data. The AKPCTA counters by asserting that they developed and circulated a separate 'Teacher’s Aid' app for maintaining CCA records, claiming it has no connection with the university’s official mark-entry system.