“Students who are a part of JNU will be guided by the earlier rules. All M.Phil students enrolled in the university can continue with their Ph.D if they obtain the minimum CGPA,” said M. Jagadesh Kumar, Vice-Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University on Thursday.
The V-C’s clarification about the UGC’s May 2016 Gazette Notification not having a retrospective effect came much to the relief of students who were worried about their future at JNU.
Transition period
Students who apply now under the new rules will be granted admission according to vacancies at every centre. “Some professors have up to 20 students under them, while some have just one or two students. Fresh applicants will be allotted to professors who have vacancies. There will be a transition period of one or two years, during which students currently on our rolls will pass out. After this, every professor will be allotted students according to the UGC cap,” said Mr. Kumar. The V-C added that JNU has plans to hire nearly 300 faculty members.
“Research programmes are not like BA or B.Tech courses that can be taught in a lecture format. Each professor needs to give individual attention to students, which is why the UGC has come out with a cap on the number of students each faculty member can guide,” said Mr. Kumar.
‘Students are relentless’
Responding to the deadlock between students and the administration, as a result of which students have blocked the Administration Block and not let the university office function for over a week, the V-C said that he and his administration had reached out many times. The students, he said, had been relentless. “We have come up with a new admission policy keeping in mind unique features like deprivation points within the UGC’s Gazette Notification guidelines. We have explained this to the students but they are adamant and want us to remove the entire UGC notification. That is not possible as the UGC notification is binding on all universities,” the V-C added.
“I have had a discussion with many students and explained these decisions, but there is a particular group that wants me to stand on the staircase and address them over the din of their slogans and beating of drums. A sensible discussion cannot take place in an atmosphere where students are not willing to listen. We have told them that you first vacate the Administration Block and then we can sit and discuss the issue,” he said.
Man hours being wasted
Mr. Kumar also pointed out that because of the blockade, 250 members of the administration were unable to work. As a result, he said, man hours were being wasted, which was costing the university financially and academically.
“We are not being able to pay contractual workers,” said Mr. Kumar.
Asked if he planned to take action against the students to force them to end the blockade, the JNU V-C said that the university would continue to talk to them, explain to them, and reason with them to end the deadlock.
