JNU to hold CUET from 2022-23, teachers & pupils raise concerns

New Delhi: Even as the Jawaharlal Nehru University said that is had decided to hold admissions through the Common Universities Entrance Test (CUET) from the next academic session (2022-23) in its 159th Academic Council meeting on Wednesday, the JNU Teachers' Association condemned the move and the students' association vehemently opposed it.

A statement issued by the Director of Admissions, Jayant K Tripathi, said that the AC members had "overwhelmingly endorsed" the decision to move to the CUET-based admissions process, adding, "During the deliberations in the Academic Council, a large number of members including the Deans of Schools, Centre Chairpersons, and External Members of the Council emphasized that CUET would provide a level playing field to numerous eligible students from across the country reducing the burden of taking several entrance examinations."

However, in a statement issued after the meeting, the JNUTA said that V-C Jagadesh Kumar had "once again bulldozed his dictat" through the meeting without considering the objections being raised by several members of the Academic Council.

The JNUTA added that the agenda for Wednesday's meeting was sent to members just two days prior by stating that the decision in this regard had already been taken in the 157th meeting. The Director of Admissions also said that such a decision was already taken in the earlier AC meeting but the JNUTA said that the minutes of this meeting had no record of such a decision being taken.

The teachers' association said that the 157th meeting had only recommended that once the Centre issued directions for the same, the university would accordingly adopt and admit students through this method.

Significantly, the teachers' association added that 111 faculty members had also submitted their written suggestion that the particular agenda item regarding the CUET should be sent to the Board of Studies of Schools and the Faculty Committee for deliberations. "Not only did the Vice-Chancellor not place this letter on the table, he also did not allow people to raise apprehensions with respect to the adoption of CUCET," the JNUTA said.

Moreover, the association said that mics of members wanting to dissent were muted at Wednesday's meeting. In fact, the JNUTA added that the mic of a member was also muted when he was trying to raise concerns about other dissenting members not being allowed to make their points. It said that the administration choosing to say that the agenda was "overwhelmingly endorsed" in the meeting was "shameless".

However, in his statement, the Director of Admissions said, "The misinformation spread by a few faculty members about CUET was noted by the Academic Council and deplored."

Meanwhile, the JNU Students' Union, had also strongly opposed the introduction of the CUET for admissions to the varsity in a letter to the Chair of the AC on Wednesday morning. It had said, "Many Universities including JNU offer programmes and courses that are unique to the University. A one size fits all approach of CUET will be detrimental in this regard and will not be sufficient to accommodate the diverse range of programmes offered in different Universities," adding that this would raise serious concerns about transparency in the admission test process.

Recently, Delhi University has also decided to hold admissions from the next academic session through the CUET.