A 27-year-old woman doing her PhD at Jadavpur University jumped to her death in front of a Metro train at Park Street station on Monday evening, allegedly because the College Service Commission did not recruit her as a political science teacher.

University sources said Apala Dey, a doctoral student of international relations, appeared depressed ever since she found her name missing from the list of recruits published last week.

“Apala, a resident of Karunamoyee Ghat Road in Tollygunge, had separated from her husband and was desperate for a job to sustain herself and her three-year-old son,” a university friend said.

Teachers and fellow researchers said Apala was a bright student looking forward to a career in teaching after cracking the National Eligibility Test for lecturers at the undergraduate level.

“She had hoped to try again after finding her name missing from the list of recruits but a directive issued by the College Service Commission left her shattered. She was extremely upset after hearing that NET qualifiers with international relations as their subject would not be eligible to teach political science,” the friend said.

International relations professor Kanak Sarkar said the university faculty was “fighting” against the College Service Commission’s decision to debar those with international relations as their subject from teaching political science.

Apala’s PhD guide, Tridip Chakraborty, said it was “shocking” to see a promising career end in this way. “She was among the best PhD scholars in our university. She was doing her research on Southeast Asian affairs,” he added.

Officials of the commission termed Apala’s death an “unfortunate incident”.

“We will discuss the incident in our next meeting. But one has to understand the technical problems,” said Himangshu Ghosh, the chairman. “Candidates cracking NET with international relations are more equipped to teach history than political science. There is a problem with the syllabus of a particular university (he didn’t name JU) and the authorities have to solve it,” he explained.

On Monday, Apala visited the university to return a few books she had borrowed from the library. “She left the library around 3.30pm, and I heard her telling the librarian: ‘Didi, aami aashlam (Didi, I am leaving)’. How were we to know that she meant ‘leaving’ for the last time?” a student said.

Apala was spotted standing on the platform for south-bound passengers at Park Street station around 7pm waiting for a train to arrive. “Her demeanour was like that of any other passenger. She gave no reason for me to suspect she would be attempting suicide in a couple of minutes,” said witness Subinoy Sarkar.

As the Kavi Nazrul-bound train entered at 7.05pm, Apala walked from the middle of the platform to the edge and jumped, Sarkar recalled.

Metro Railway officials said the driver slammed the brakes but Apala was run over before the train came to a halt. Metro services were partially disrupted for an hour. The Dum Dum-Kavi Nazrul service was restored at 8.05pm.

Apala was the 10th person to die on the Metro tracks this year. November witnessed as many as four suicides, including three in as many days.