While the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) is surrounded with protests against the reduction of M.Phil and Ph.D. programmes, the Delhi University is struggling with a problem of plenty. The intake capacity or the M.Phil programme offered by different departments of DU is 25 students despite the increased faculty hiring.
This has led to the situation where faculty members have very few or no students to supervise. At JNU, however, every teacher has at least one student to supervise excluding Sanskrit Studies, Integrated Science, Physical Sciences and Computer.
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According to the notification sent by the UGC, a professor can supervise only three students, only two students can be mentored by an associate professor whereas an assistant professor can guide only one student.
History Department of DU has 16 professors, 13 associate professors and 12 assistant professors. If the norms mentioned by UGC are followed then the department can admit a total of 86 students, whereas the current strength of the department is 25 students.
Similarly, the department of Political Science comprises of 14 professors and five assistant professors. This allows the department to admit close to 47 M.Phil students. The Hindi department has 12 professors, 9 associates and 1 assistant professor; allowing the department to take in 91 students. With 13 professors, 9 associates and 2 assistant professors, the Sanskrit department can take in 98 students.
The only exception to this case is the English department of DU. The department increased its M.Phil seats from 25 to 14 in 2010.
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According to a university official, the matter has been taken up by the academic and executive council. DU will soon implement the new norms provided by the UGC, added the official.