More than 400 scholars and academicians from across the world have written to the Vice-Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), expressing their solidarity with the students and teachers of the University and urging the authorities to retain the existing admission policy.
The University had recently announced implementation of the 2016 University Grants Commission Gazette Notification, regarding admissions in M.Phil and PhD courses, which would result in huge seat cuts for these courses. The letter expressed deep concern for the students and shock at the events that have unfolded in the campus. It said: "We urge the responsible authorities to act decisively to protect the future of JNU as an internationally renowned university of academic excellence, which has produced generations of excellent researchers, scholars and other professionals."
"It is also well known for its academic freedom and autonomy that fosters debates, discussions and dissent," the letter, written by many renowned academicians, said.
The students who sent the letter include Haroon Akram (Lodhi International Development studies, Trent University), Aabid Firdausi (Department of Economics, University of Kerala) and many others.
They urged Vice-Chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar to engage the students and teachers who are anxious and distraught and to find a meaningful solution to the present situation.
The letter also noted that, "JNU is vital to an international network of world class collaborative research in different subjects, and especially in the social sciences and humanities.
"Now, however, the academic culture and context that has formed the very basis of our cooperation with JNU, and that has enabled its students and scholars to be recognized across the globe for their pioneering intellectual work, is under serious threat. Students, who are the essence of any university, and the future of a nation, are staring at their lives being brought to a complete standstill."
The scholars and academicians requested the V-C to "restore the institutional autonomy of the University and provide immediate assurance to the national and international community that JNU will maintain its commitment to an academic, and intellectual, vision of a university that champions academic freedoms, teaching and research, keeping social and gender justice, and civil liberties, intact."