New Delhi, Feb. 7: Tentative intake figures released by JNU today fuelled the suspicion of protesting students that MPhil and PhD seats will come down and several teachers may not be able to admit any students for several years.

The intake figures, put on the JNU website and related to admissions for 2017-18 that will begin in a few months, are based on a new set of UGC admission regulations that cap the number of scholars a teacher can supervise. There have been massive protests by students against the guidelines, adopted by JNU recently.

Under the regulations, a professor can have up to three MPhil and eight PhD scholars at any time. The number is lower for associate and assistant professors.

According to the intake figures, the prestigious School of Social Sciences (SSS) can admit up to 300 PhD candidates this year. It will not be able to take in a single PhD student for at least six years after that as it would exceed the limit imposed by the UGC regulations. Last year, this centre had admitted 340 MPhil and PhD students.

Prominent JNU economists like C.P. Chandrashekhar and Jayati Ghosh, and historians Aditya Mukherjee, Rajat Datta, Neeladri Bhattacharya, Janaki Nair and Najaf Haider will not be able to guide any more PhD students under the fresh regulations.

A section of students enforced a total shutdown of all classes - the first coercive strike in 21 years - yesterday and six students remain on an indefinite relay hunger strike for the eighth day railing against the UGC norms.

The JNU Teachers' Association has asked President Pranab Mukherjee, as the Visitor, to annul the decision of the JNU executive council accepting the UGC regulations. The association alleged the decisions were based on the "manipulation of minutes" of an earlier meeting.

The tentative list itself has errors, some teachers pointed out. "I five PhDs listed against me (for supervision). Actually, there are eight more - five MPhil students waiting for viva, two direct PhDs who have submitted their synopsis and one more writing it. Also, the batch of 2016 is now being written off completely. They are doing coursework, so it's neither in the list of supervisees nor in the list of vacancies," JNU Teachers' Association president Ayesha Kidwai said.

"Various academic centres have approved the e-prospectus based on the existing (capacity, without taking into account the new norms). Despite the completion of this process, admissions for 2017-18 have been thrown into disarray. Once again, it is the vice-chancellor who must take responsibility for this chaos," Kidwai added.

The draft prospectus internally circulated last month proposed an increase in research seats from 1,068 to 1,119 but the number did not take into account the new restrictions.

Asked about it, JNU admissions director Milap Punia replied through an SMS: "Tentative intake will worked out after receiving responses regarding the number of MPhil and PhD students at individual faculty/supervisor-wise, across school/centres as stipulated in UGC regulations (sic)."

Kidwai, the JNUTA president, cited the JNU act and said "changes in seat intake must be approved by the academic council before they can be implemented".

The standing committee on admissions, headed by Punia, had last week had resolved to take up the matter with the UGC. Neither he nor vice-chancellor M. Jagadesh Kumar replied to calls or messages on whether the UGC had been approached so far.