New admission policy: JNU students protest at UGC office

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 28

Students of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) today staged a demonstration outside the University Grants Commission (UGC) office here opposing the massive seat cut in MPhil and PhD courses following amendments in the varsity’s admission policy and demanded a rollback of the decision.

The police had a hard time controlling the protesters, who raised slogans against the UGC and restore traffic on the road.

“We have been trying to take up the matter ever since the new gazette notification was issued by the UGC in 2016, directing the universities to bring in changes in the admission and recruitment process,” said JNU Students' Union (JNUSU) president Mohit Pandey.

The JNU Vice Chancellor claimed protestors kept assuring them that the move will not have a negative impact on the students, but the results are for all to see.

The university released its prospectus last week effecting seat cuts in the MPhil and PhD programmes across the courses.

In the matter, the Delhi High Court had dismissed the plea of students challenging revised admission policy for MPhil and PhD courses of JNU while observing that the UGC guidelines were binding on all the universities, paving the way for JNU to start its admission process.

Going by the new prospectus, there would be no admission for research this year in centres such as the Centre for Indian Languages, Centre for Sociology, Centre for Political Science, Centre for History, etc. To add, the number of seats has been reduced in many other important centres as well.

Last week, the JNUSU had held a three-day strike against the decision when Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar had defended the move, saying it was in line with the UGC guidelines.