PhD aspirant seeks ‘mercy killing’ over delay in admission

LUCKNOW: A student of Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University (BBAU) has written to President Ramnath Kovind and sought ‘mercy killing’ over delay in PhD admission process at the varsity.

“It’s been five months since the PhD entrance test in BBAU’s history department was held. But the successful candidates are yet to get admission,” said the student, Arun Kumar.

‘Due to delay in PhD admission, the applicant is ready for euthanasia,’ Arun wrote to the president. He said those who cracked PhD entrance test are made to suffer due to lack of communication and infighting among teachers. “We are concerned about our career,” he added. “While we are waiting for admission, classes in other departments of PhD have already started,” he said.

Arun has already qualified for the Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) that expires on March 2019. But if he does not get admission to PhD, his fellowship money would be discontinued.

Many other PhD aspirants said they were getting restless due to delay in the admission process. “Our academic career hangs in balance,” they lamented. The candidates gave a representation to vice-chancellor NMP Verma and other university officials demanding immediate attention to the problem.

The students claimed this is not the first time they gave a reminder to university officials.

“In the past too, we had requested the department to expedite the PhD admission work. But it did not evoke positive response. We are on the brink of losing an academic year because of laidback attitude of teachers,” said a student. Vice-chancellor NMP Verma said there is some technical problem in the history department that will take two months to be sorted out.

Dean of School for Ambedkar Studies of Social Sciences, Ripu Sundan Singh said, “We are aware about the students’ problem. It happened due to some lapses within the department.”

“The departmental research committee will meet again and hopefully the issue will be resolved,” said the V-C.