: The Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) on Thursday organised a protest outside the Ministry of Human Resource Development demanding a rollback of the University Grants Commission’s notification on M.Phil/Ph.D admissions.
Demands submitted
The students also submitted a memorandum to HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar, highlighting how the imposition of the notification would destroy the character of the institute with a “one-size-fit-all” model.
“The adoption of the UGC notification will undermine JNU’s unique and decades-old deprivation point system in admissions, the Nafey Committee recommendations to reduce viva weightage in M.Phil/Ph.D admissions and other provisions,” the students wrote. In the backdrop of the UGC laying down strict rules regarding the eligibility of “research supervision”, the students outlined the dangers of a massive seat.
Autonomy at stake
At a meeting held on Wednesday, the Standing Committee in JNU had rejected any attempt to tamper with the existing admission policy of the university. The meeting was held in the wake of JNU Vice-Chancellor pushing the UGC notification by sabotaging the AC and EC of the university. Sources said the Standing Committee had decided that the administration needed to ensure that the autonomy of the university was not compromised.
Registrar Pramod Kumar said the University “resolves to safeguard social justice in its admission policy within the parameters of UGC regulations and the Standing Committee meeting on admission policyconcluded with suggestions to uphold its progressive policies within the UGC regulations”.
