JNU students strike over massive seat cuts in Phd, MPhil

JNU students who have been agitating for the last three months against the new admission policy at the varsity today went on a day-long strike to protest the massive seat cuts in MPhil and PhD courses.

The varsity released its prospectus yesterday suggesting seat cuts in the MPhil/PhD programmes across different courses in line with the University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines.

Last week, the Delhi High Court had dismissed the plea by some students challenging the JNU admission policy for MPhil and PhD courses saying the UGC guidelines for these courses are binding on all varsities, paving the way for the university to begin its admission process.

"The Vice Chancellor had claimed that there will be wider consultations and there will be no seat cuts to deny opportunities to students from marginalised community but they have revealed their intentions in the prospectus itself," JNU Student Union President Mohit Pandey said.

"The strike observed today was day-long but we will decide our future course of action soon," he added.

According to the new admission policy, deprivation points are also being applied only to BA and MA courses this year and not research courses.

Several schools, including the School of Computer and Systems Sciences, School of Computational and Integrative Sciences, and School of Biotechnology have announced zero intake.

In the School of Social Sciences, all 13 centres had announced intake last year, but this year only two centres can admit students. Of these, the Centre for Study of Regional Development has provision for only one intake.

The application process for the different courses in the university began yesterday and will conclude on April 5.

The admissions to the courses in JNU are held through entrance examination and interview with 80 per cent weightage is for entrance exam and 20 per cent for viva.

Earlier the university had decided to make the entrance as qualifying and give 100 per cent weightage to viva. But following protests from students the 80:20 formula was arrived at.