JNU is Going Against Wishes of its Panel: Students
As per the newly adopted norms, Viva-Voce is regarded as the sole criterion for admission to M.Phil & PhD courses, and the entrance examination is just a mere qualifying examination.
A total number of nine students have been dismissed by the Academic Council (AC) of Jawaharlal Nehru University for disrupting the meeting of AC which was held on December 26, 2016. The varsity has shown its policy of going against its panel by adopting UGC Gazette notification of May 2016. The varsity had appointed a committee which suggested to reduce the marks for the interview while carrying out M.Phil & Ph.D. admissions.
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However, the Executive Council of JNU adopted the UGC Gazette of May 2016 which was severely objected by the students and teachers. As per the newly adopted norms, viva-voce is regarded as the sole criterion for admission to M.Phil & Ph.D. courses, and the entrance examination is just a mere qualifying examination.
The varsity follows a 70:30 formula of written test and interview. On November 4, 2016, an eight-member committee, i.e., Abdul Nafey Committee submitted the report favouring the reduction of marks that are allocated for the interview after studying admission related data from 2012-15.
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The findings of the committee clearly indicate that the pattern of difference between written test and viva-voce marks indicates discrimination among all the social categories. Therefore, the interview marks must be reduced to 15 from 30 marks.
One of the students claimed that during the Academic Council meet, 27 professors supported the reduction of interview marks and 32 professors did not support it. However, the varsity did not take the majority opinion into consideration. Currently, the varsity is sending letters to affiliated centres to implement UGC notification.