The Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers’ Association (JNUTA) on Sunday said that statistics presented to the 144th Academic Council by the university administration show that the admission exercise for research programmes (MPhil/PhD, MTech, and PhD) for the academic year 2017-18 to be a “complete failure”.
It said that the outlook for the 2018-19 admissions is also “pretty bleak” should the admission policy not change. The JNUTA said that for 2017-18, only 159 seats of the 290 seats announced as intake were offered for admission — 131 (45%) seats were not even offered.
Seat reservation
“This picture is by no means the normal state of affairs for JNU admissions where offers exceed intake and the shortfall in enrolment is always under 10%,” the association said in a statement.
It also alleged that the admission policy failed to adhere to the reservation policy as of the 159 seats offered, only 31 (20.75%) seats were reserved, which is in “complete violation of the CEI Act and Constitutional provisions”.
The withdrawal of the deprivation points system that was crucial in promoting the all-India character of the JNU admissions has also taken a severe hit, said the JNUTA.
“Since 2011, the trend is that slightly more than half the new students enrolled were from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi and West Bengal; with UP and Bihar vying for the top spot. This year, however, Bihar has slipped to the 4th spot,” said the JNUTA.
“Deprivation points have a very important role in ensuring that there isn’t an overwhelming dominance of Delhi and other metros in admissions. Without the points to balance the social, economic, and regional provenance of students admitted, JNU shall rapidly slide towards becoming a university for Delhi, a few places nearby and the other metros,” said the JNUTA.
The association also said that it rejects the “no-admission” policy that is leading to a colossal waste of public money and dashing the hopes of thousands of students.
“JNU teachers have had no part in this admissions catastrophe that has been brought upon the university despite all warnings, and will spare no efforts to hold the JNU V-C accountable for his wilful violation of the Constitution of India and the Acts its Parliament has enacted,” said JNUTA president Ayesha Kidwai.
