Answering questions on the sudden reduction in M.Phil/Ph.D seats at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar told the Rajya Sabha on Thursday that the number of seats would soon go up as several vacancies, especially in the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe categories, would be filled.
He sought to defend the UGC norms for the Ph.D supervision and tacitly laid the blame on the JNU itself for the sudden fall in seats.
“We have mandated, that is, the court has mandated that we have to follow the UGC guidelines. There are 300 vacancies; for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, 190 vacancies were there. They had not been filled for years. So, an advertisement was issued. Applications were received. Interviews of divyangs and others have started,” Mr. Javadekar said.
He pointed out that under the UGC norms, a professor could guide up to eight students, an associate professor six and an assistant professor four. “The situation at JNU was different. One professor might be guiding four only, or even up to 15, 20 or 25 students,” he said. “Have you heard anywhere that one Professor is guiding 25 research scholars? But that has happened...”
His answer was in response to Congress leader Digvijaya Singh’s question how research would be expanded with seats being cut.
