In-house PhD entrance test at JNU? Proposal stuck as varsity, teachers trade charges

With no response from any of the Schools and Special Centres, officials said it is highly unlikely a conclusion can be arrived at.

Speaking to The Indian Express, a senior official at JNU, on the condition of anonymity, said, “Deans have not come back so far with a plan. None of the 14 schools and 10 special centres have come (back) with a way to go about (it). Each school has to decide on all aspects as they will conduct (the exam)… (the) administration will coordinate. It has to be submitted in writing and no one has done anything so far… teachers need to shoulder the responsibility.”

In response, JNU Teachers Association president Moushumi Basu, also an Associate Professor at the School of International Studies (SIS), said, “As directed by the Vice-Chancellor, we have met the Deans of most schools before the deadline — August 5 — to submit our views as stakeholders for the varsity to resume conducting the in-house examination. At least big schools like the School of International Studies, School of Social Sciences, and School of Languages have given their views in writing on this move well before the deadline… most of whom we have spoken to have been favourable to considering the traditional in-house examination.”

“If a deadline was set by the administration, how is it possible that not even a single school or special centre in the entire university has responded?” Basu asked.

An official from the SIS, on condition of anonymity, stated that “all 13 centres deliberated right after this decision was taken by the varsity and all of this has been communicated to our Board of Studies… If this has not reached the administration’s notice, we will check and take the required measures. But in terms of academic substantiveness, we have deliberated with all our centres and most of them were in favour of the in-house exam.”

For the past three years, the National Testing Agency (NTA) had conducted computer-based tests for PhD admissions, a practice that faced increasing criticism from the university community.

This year, JNU announced a change in its selection process for admission to its PhD programmes. From the current academic year, JNU said it accepts NET scores instead of conducting its own entrance test, in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. But the abrupt cancellation of the June 2024 NET has prompted a reevaluation of this approach. On July 3, JNU V-C Santishree D Pandit initiated discussions about reviving the university’s own entrance exam system.