JNUSU extends strike against seat cut

Students hit out at Vice-Chancellor, to stage protest outside UGC office today

NEW DELHI, 14/02/2017: JNU Teachers and students seen during a massive march from Mandi House to Parliament against the seat-cut in M.Phil/PHD addmission, in New Delhi on Tuesday. Photo: Sushil Kumar Verma

The Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) has decided to extend its strike against the “massive seat cut” in M.Phil and Ph.D courses.

At a General Body Meeting on Thursday, students decided to carry out various forms of protest against the UGC 2016 Gazette Notification that puts a cap on the number of research scholars a professor can guide.

‘Political struggle’

“The council deliberated on various forms of protests and explored all legal possibilities along with a ground-level political struggle,” the JNUSU said.

On Friday, the students’ body will organise a protest outside the office of the University Grants Commission.

The students hit out at Vice-Chancellor M. Jagadesh Kumar for informing the media that “there will be no seat cut” and that “students will be given deprivation points”, but contradicting himself in the admission announcement.

JNU Registrar Pramod Kumar, however, said the UGC notification had to be implemented “without any deviation”.

‘Argument untenable’

“The argument that there has been a seat cut is untenable, since the current strength of research scholars is higher than the required cap,” said the Registrar.

He added that the university had advertised about 300 faculty positions this year.

Once these vacancies are filled, the number of research seats will increase, he added.