At JNU, no headway on bid to bring back internal entrance for PhD courses

“The response sent by all schools to the matter discussed in the July 3 meeting of the VC with the Deans and Chairpersons of Special Centres regarding holding of in-house JNU PhD Entrance Examinations for 2024-26 was neither tabled by the administration nor allowed to be raised by any member,” JNU Teacher’s Association (JNUTA) stated Friday.

The teacher’s body also condemned “this autocratic style of running meetings by the chair of these bodies, namely the Vice-Chancellor”. “No ‘decisions’ taken in such a non-meeting have any legitimacy,” it added.

“The item was not placed in the AC meeting as the request for JNUEE (JNU entrance exam) has not come in writing from any dean or special centre chairperson,” an official on the condition of anonymity told The Indian Express.

The idea of going back to JNUEE was floated after the UGC National Eligibility Test — crucial for entry-level teaching jobs and PhD admissions at universities — was cancelled on June 19 following inputs from the Ministry of Home Affairs that “the integrity of the examination may have been compromised”. In July, JNU said it would take eight weeks to arrive at a final decision on returning to the in-house exams.

No to ‘central interference’

JNUTA‘s statement Friday also criticised the Union Education Ministry‘s proposal in August to include its nominee in the Executive Council of all central universities, including JNU and DU, to “ensure uniformity in governance”. The ministry “requested” universities to take “necessary steps to amend their statutes” to comply with the proposal. “Out of 48 Central Universities, 20 have already included a representative of the Ministries in their EC, while 28 …do not currently have any such representation,” the ministry had stated in a letter.

However, JNUTA said the request for amendment “completely undermines the Act from which the statutes derive their legitimacy”. “This is nothing but a nefarious attempt to undermine the law of the land that vests the powers of awarding degrees only to Universities that are created through acts of legislatures – whose precise logic is that these institutions have to be autonomous bodies and not be departments of the government,” JNUTA stated.

DU has faced similar backlash after it placed the proposal on its agenda for the EC meeting on October 14.

“The addition of a representative of the Ministry of Education in the executive is unacceptable as this would increase the inference of government in the day-to-day decision-making of the university and adversely affect the concept of autonomy,” said EC member Professor Aman Kumar.

A DU official said, “When the university receives a letter from the government, it has to follow it. We have introduced this proposal as an agenda item in the EC meeting and it is up for full-fledged deliberation”.