State-specific reservations don’t apply to UoH

Seats open to students from across the country, say varsity officials

Reservations specific to neither Telangana nor Andhra Pradesh exist at the University of Hyderabad (UoH), where seats are open to students from across the country, insist university officials.

Only two supernumerary seats are reserved for students from Jammu & Kashmir and the North Eastern States to encourage students from those regions, officials said in response to news reports that efforts were onto keep the UoH in the jurisdiction of Andhra Pradesh, despite bifurcation of the State.

The issue of the university’s jurisdiction was raised by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) in 2007, when it asked UoH why its jurisdiction was confined to AP in its Act – when other central varsities did not have the specific mention.

Senior teachers said UoH had come into being as part of a six-point formula during the 1969 Telangana and 1971 Andhra agitations, and the sixth point was the creation of a central university. However, seats were always open to students from across the country.

Moreover, the jurisdiction of the State had become necessary to ensure that associate and external institutes that offer research courses to students on behalf of UoH have legality. The university allows top institutes like the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology to admit Ph.D students, while the degree is awarded by UoH.

Similarly, the UoH selects a few research students who get to work under researchers in top institutions. To ensure that only institutes within the erstwhile AP were eligible, the AP jurisdiction part was adopted by the Executive Council two years ago, officials argue.

Audit reports due

Meanwhile, a senior UoH teacher said the court meeting had to take place on Friday, November 21, as they received a letter from the MHRD to send an audited report for 2013-14 and for the annual report to be placed in the Parliament session that begins November 24.

The reports have to be cleared by the court meeting consisting of all UoH professors and five appointed Parliament members. Among the five, three are no more MPs – including K. Chandrasekhar Rao, Anjan Kumar Yadav and Nama Nageshwar Rao – while the term of Y. Sujana Chowdary and V. Hanumanth Rao will expire soon.

Officials say some employees whose appointments were questioned by the MHRD committee were raking up these issues to save themselves.