New Delhi, March 22: Despondency has become the theme of conversations at JNU since last night when the varsity released its 2017-18 prospectus outlining deep cuts in research seats.
Last year, the varsity offered 1,068 seats in MPhil-PhD integrated courses, including those selected for junior research fellowships by the University Grants Commission (UGC). For the forthcoming session, the number is down 88 per cent to 130.
The admission norms for 2017-18 follow UGC regulations that cap the number of research scholars a teacher can supervise, make viva voce the final criteria for selection to such courses and end deprivation points (grace marks) for weaker sections.
As a result of the curbs, several JNU schools of sciences will not admit any student. Nor will most academic centres in international studies, social sciences and languages. JNU - which received the President's Award for Best University earlier this month - will offer no seats in three centres categorised as hubs of "excellence" by the UGC - history, political science and social systems.
"Andhera chha gaya hai (Darkness is upon us)," said Supriy Ranjan. The final-year MA political science student, the first from his village in Bihar's Katihar to get into a master's course, was looking to join the integrated MPhil-PhD programme . "None of my classmates know where our future lies. It is completely shattering. We've even lost the ability to agitate. There is just gloom."
The JNU teachers' association is expected to announce a course of legal action after a general body meeting tomorrow. "The (prospectus seat) calculations make no sense. No centre had zero admissions when we submitted our intake lists to the administration. Now zero admission has been imposed on us without even informing us. In the School of Computers and Systems Sciences, it appears the integrated MTech-PhD course has been delinked. This has caused panic and despondency," teachers' association president Ayesha Kidwai said.
The high court had last week dismissed a petition by some students questioning the new norms, framed by the UGC and adopted by JNU. Applications for all courses, including bachelors and masters, close on April 5. Sixty-four direct PhD seats are also being offered. Entrance exams and viva voce are mandatory for all research courses.
"We will protest at the UGC and challenge its gazette in court as violative of the 2007 law on reservation that mandatorily increased seats. The university is using this as a one-shot solution to all its problems of funds and lack of hostels. Minister Prakash Javadekar has admitted on the floor of Parliament that 20 per cent (teacher) vacancies exist in central varsities. We are being made to suffer for their (the Centre's) folly of not filling these (sanctioned) vacancies," JNU student union president Mohit Pandey said.
The union is under pressure from students for a more militant agitation. A meeting has been called tonight.
