JNU students to continue ‘seat cut’ strike

Jawaharlal Nehru University students’ union (JNUSU) will continue with its protest against “seat cut” on Friday even as the university said the number of seats advertised for research courses is lesser compared to last year as it is based on the need to implement the 2016 UGC Gazette notification “without any deviation”.

JNU released its admission prospectus in which the number of seats in MPhil and PhD has gone down to around 200 from over 1,000 last year. Students have been protesting against the new admission rules.

The students had on Wednesday called for a one-day strike, Thursday they decided to continue it for two more days and hold a protest demonstration outside the University Grants Commission’s office on Friday.

“Now that the 2016 UGC Gazette Notification is mandatory, readjustment of number of seats in MPhil/PhD programme is imperative. In accordance with the cap on research seats as per 2016 UGC Regulation, all the available vacant positions have been advertised,” JNU registrar Pramod Kumar said.

He also said the argument that there is seat cut is untenable, since the current strength of research scholars is much higher than the required cap.

The 2016 UGC gazette puts a cap on the number of students a professor, associate and assistant professor can mentor. For instance, a professor, cannot guide more than three MPhil and eight PhD scholars. An associate professor can guide only two MPhil and six PhD scholars and an assistant professor can guide only one MPhil and four PhD scholars.

He also said JNU has advertised about 300 faculty positions this year and after recruitment, the number of seats in the coming year for research scholars will substantially increase.

The students’ union said they will explore all legal possibilities along with the ground level political struggle.

JNU teachers’ association also held a meeting on Thursday. “We will approach Parliamentarians to raise this issue. The new rules will be disastrous for students who want to pursue research,” said JNUTA president Ayesha Kidwai.

“The V-C lied to the media time and again by saying ‘there will be no seat cut’, ‘students will be given deprivation points’, ‘the reservation will be given’. A sharp contradiction to that has been announced by JNU administration in its recently released prospectus,” said JNUSU general secretary Satarupa Chakraborty.

Meanwhile, HRD minister Prakash Javadekar defended the varsity’s decision saying it follows UGC norms.