Jawaharlal Nehru University has 89 professors who are mentoring more than 10 Ph.D. scholars against the UGC norms that a professor cannot guide more than 8 Ph.D. students. In addition to this, there are 15 professors at the university who are managing 20 or more Ph.D. candidates in their schedule.
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This is not the only UGC law violated by the administration of the university. More than 191 professors of the university guide fewer Ph.D. candidates according to the mandated number set by UGC.
This is one of the many anomalies that were brought into light when the university answered the allegations of students stating that it was trying to cut down the intake of research students. However, the university maintains that the intake has been reduced according to the prescribed norms so that imbalance could be avoided
JNU Vice-Chancellor, Jagadesh Kumar said that MPhil and Ph.D. are research programmes therefore, UGC has the discretion to decide the number of students that a professor can mentor. Talking about the huge group of Ph.D. scholars guided by professors single-handedly, Kumar said that JNU is working to reduce the imbalance.
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He also clarified that the number of seats will not be reduced in the Ph.D. programmes. He added that only those professors who have vacancies will be allowed to take Ph.D. scholars under them. In order to create balance, professors with fewer candidates will be asked to take students from mentors who have more than 20 students.