JNU has problem of ‘freeloaders’: VC

NEW DELHI: Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has a problem of ‘freeloaders’–both overstaying students and illegal guests–and the administration is now tightening the noose on them, according to its Vice Chancellor Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit.

Pandit said she has issued strict instructions to the hostel administration not to allow any student to stay in hostels beyond five years.

In response to a question on allegations of JNU having seen freeloaders stay on campus at the cost of taxpayer money, Pandit said, “You are absolutely right, we have a problem of freeloaders.”

Herself an alumna of the university, the 61-year-old said the issue was there even when she was a student but it has increased now.

“When I was there, we had many students who stayed over but the number of such students was very low... JNU creates certain illusions too... certain students... want everything free and subsidised... even the Lok Sabha canteen is costlier than the JNU canteen but in our times, teachers were very strict,” she said.

“The professor supervising my research told me if you don’t complete it in fourand-a-half years, you are out. I knew he wouldn’t sign my fellowship extension... I think this has changed over the years. Certain professors permitted such extensions and that’s how the number has gone up,” Pandit said.

Pandit pursued her MPhil and PhD from JNU from 1985-1990 after finishing her master’s degree from Presidency College in Chennai.

“There are also people on campus who are illegal guests, who are not even students of JNU but come here and stay,” she said.