Ghazanfar Abbas, IndiaTomorrow.net,
New Delhi, April 8: A large number of students pursuing their masters from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) are uncertain about their future after massive seats cut in MPhil/PhD programs. Acting on the University Grants Commission (UGC) notification 2016 for admission in MPhil/PhD programs at central universities, JNU has offered either no seat or very few seats in its various centers for 2017-18 session.
IndiaTomorrow.net talked to many students of JNU who are concerned about their career as there are no seats in the research programs they had aspired to take admission in this year.
“My center had 60 seats for research, this year it has zero seat. I came here with a dream to do research at India’s top university but due to the sudden seat cut, I have no idea what to do,” said Ramesh Kumar, pursuing masters in Hindi.
Shahadat, an MA (Arabic) student also showed his hopelessness as there is no seat for MPhil/PhD at his center this year.
“Due to seat cut, most students pursuing masters are affected. We have limited opportunities for research at other varsities. Seats cut process could have been done phase-wise. The university should come with a middle path so that students can get admissions,” Shahadat said.
Besides others, both the Hindi and Arabic department have no seats for MPhil/PhD this year as they have already exceeded the limit of student-teacher ratio set by the UGC.
The new UGC regulation has restricted the number of researchers in MPhil and PhD, a faculty member can supervise at a time. As per the new rule, a professor can supervise 3 MPhil students and 8 PhD students. An associate professor can supervise 2 MPhil and 6 PhD students. An assistant professor can supervise 1 MPhil and 4 PhD students.
Earlier, there was no such restriction.
There are many students who are pursuing masters in the subjects for which JNU had offered research programs with good number of seats. Such students will face double jeopardy as very few universities offer those specialized research programs and JNU has cut the seats.
Vineet, who is pursuing masters in Linguistics hopelessly told: “We are total 23 students in the final semester here. No seat has been offered in our center. There are just few universities which offer research in Linguistics. Hyderabad Central University (HCU) has offered 3 seats only. The English and Foreign Language University (EFLU), also in Hyderabad, is also offering very few seats.
“So, if central universities are not offering any seat for research, we have no idea what we will be doing,” he asked.
Another student, Bhupali Magre termed the seat cut decision as a move towards privatization of higher education.
“The logic of quality the UGC is giving for cutting seats is actually going to hamper students coming from backward/marginalized sections and regions. This government has a very narrow vision regarding higher education. It wants public institutions to become private institutions,” Magre said.
While Anjali, MA (Economics) said that this is a step backward for students aspiring for higher research.
JNU students have been protesting in and outside the campus and demanding the rollback of the UGC notification since December last year when JNU adopted the new admission policy as per the notification. They have protested outside the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) and UGC headquarters several times but none is heeding them.
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“300 faculty positions are vacant in JNU. If they were really concerned about quality of education, they should have started recruitment of teachers first. After our several protests they are now saying about recruitment of teachers but have not given any deadline. Rather than recruiting teachers, seats for students have been cut. Basically they don’t want research. The UGC gazette notification is politically-motivated and to end higher education,” a protesting student Randheer Kumar said.
Kumar who is pursuing masters in Political Science at JNU, wanted to do research in West Asia but in his School of International Studies (SIS), seats for MPhil/PhD aspirants have been reduced to 2 from 200.
“I wanted to do research in West Asia. If JRF students could not take admission this year, their fellowship will lapse,” he said.
Pradeep, final year student of MA (History) held Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) responsible for the seat cut.
“Sangh wants to shut down all institutes where it’s unable to spread its ideology. They are degrading the standard of research,” Pradeep annoyingly said.
“Last year, the History centre had 52 seats for MPhil/PhD, but this year it has no seat. In many other centers, situation is same. That’s why we are protesting. This seats cut has blocked the entry of poor, marginalized students. This is an attack on all central universities and society overall,” he said.
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UGC notification regulating MPhil/PhD admissions unjust: Sharad Yadav
