JNU witnesses fall in applications again

The number of students applying to Jawaharlal Nehru University has decreased for the second consecutive year. This year, the university received 18% less applications compared to last year. About 60,000 applications were received this year while in 2016, JNU got 74,000.

In 2015, around 80,000 students had applied, which was recently declared as the second best university in the country by the Human Resources and Development ministry.

While teachers and students said this is happening due to reduction in the number of seats in research courses, the administration said this year the competition on each seat has got tougher.

“This year 30 students will be competing for one seat while last year 27 students fought for one seat. The demand for getting admission has risen,” said Milap Punia, director admissions.

SK Sopory, former JNU vicechancellor, said there could be many reasons for the number of admissions falling each year.

“... One can correlate the numbers in different ways and say competition isn’t decreasing. But someone from within the university needs to look into this issue as to why the number of applications is going down?”

JNU teachers’ association (JNUTA) president Ayesha Kidwai said this is happening due to a “massive seat cut” in most centres in JNU. She said at School of International Studies, which has 13 centres, only three centres have seats and at School of Social Sciences, which has 12 centres, only two centres have seats.

“If there are zero seats in centres then where will students apply?” she said.

Students said applicants got little time to complete the formalities so many could not submit the form. Unlike previous years when forms were out by February, this year the forms were released on March 21 and the last date for submission was April 5.