JNU seat cuts: Students go on strike, varsity stands its ground

The release of Jawaharlal Nehru University's e-prospectus, which suggests that there have been 86 percent seat cuts for MPhil and PhD programmes, has created mayhem among the students.

The students decided to go on strike, but the University has claimed that it is adhering to the University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines.

Students opposing the massive seat cuts staged a complete strike in the campus on Thursday and did not attend classes. They will further stage a massive protest near the UGC office on Friday, seeking answers regard the issue. "We will not allow the UGC to kill our University," read a release by the students.

"The cut in seats in MPhil, PhD was expected in JNU after the Delhi High Court dismissed the plea of some students against the UGC notification. But no one expected the number of seats would be slashed so drastically," said a JNU student.

In response to the allegations, the JNU administration maintained its stand stating that changes are made according to the UGC regulations specified in the May 5, 2016 notification. Contrary to this, the students claim that the move jeopardises the socially inclusive nature of the University.

The new admission prospectus for the academic year 2017-18 has only 194 seats for research aspirants. Last year, the number was 1,174.

JNU released its prospectus on Tuesday night, suggesting seat cuts in the MPhil and PhD programmes across different courses in line with the UGC guidelines dated May 5, 2016.

The seats include integrated MPhil-PhD, junior research fellowships and direct PhD courses. Further, the UGC notification also puts a cap on the number of students a professor can supervise during their MPhil and PhD.

The 'deprivation points' model – considered to be a unique feature of the University – has been scrapped for MPhil and PhD courses. It will be applicable only to BA and MA courses this academic year. The deprivation points for research scholars facilitated the entry of students, especially women from marginalised backgrounds.

Meanwhile, JNU students have alleged that Vice-Chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar has not kept his word that no seat cuts will take place in JNU. They also claimed that he has lied about the same in public forums.

"The reason why less number of seats compared to last year in these programmes have been advertised is based on the need to implement the 2016 UGC Gazette Notification 'without any deviation', which has also been endorsed by the High Court," said an official of the University.

"About 200 seats available in JNU for 2017-18 is still a large number in spite of the need to readjust the number of seats to be allotted to research scholars in various fields," the official added.