JNU Students Union, ABVP object to prospectus issued for coming session

Students and professors of the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University have objected to the prospectus issued for the coming session, that has cut down seats for PhD/MPhil courses from 1,048 down to just 130 this year.

This time, both the left run JNU Students Union and the ABVP spoke out against the move that cuts seats by almost 87% this year.

Students called for a strike and burnt the new prospectus which offers 64 seats for Direct PhD.

JNUSU President Mohit Pandey called it a 'death sentence for JNU', Saurabh Sharma of the ABVP called it 'disheartening'.

The university has also scrapped deprivation points that help give entry to women and those from marginalised backgrounds, a move that was strongly contested by the Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students' Union.

As per the High Court's order, the UGC gazette notification of May 2016 has been adhered to for admission, which stipulates the number of students a faculty member can guide. Since many of them guide more than the stipulated number, various centres and schools have zero intake this year.

Following the UGC regulations, the university has also stated that admission to MPhil/PhD would be dependent only on viva-voce which according to the students, may lead to prejudiced admissions. "The entrance examination would be of qualifying nature with 50 per cent qualifying marks followed by viva-voce," the prospectus reads.

Most affected by the seat cut are the three biggest schools of JNU - School of Social Sciences (SSS), School of International Studies (SIS) and the School of Language, Literature & Cultural Studies (SL).

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