JNU: Massive cut in MPhil/PhD seats for academic session 2017-2018

Jawaharlal Nehru University released its prospectus for the coming academic session late last night. Following the High Court order, the May 2016 UGC gazette notification has been followed for admissions to MPhil/PhD courses resulting in a cut of seats in certain schools and centres by upto 86 per cent offering only 194 admissions against 1406 seats last year. Some centres have zero intake especially in the School of Social Sciences, the School of Computer & Systems Sciences, the School of Computational and Integrative Sciences, and the School of Biotechnology.

Only 3 out of the 13 centres of the School for International Studies, the oldest school on campus, have offered seats for MPhil/PhD programmes.

There will also be no deprivation points for SC/ST/OBC/Dalit students in MPhil/PhD programmes in the current academic session.

According to a report published in DNA, the prospectus came after the Delhi High Court last week rejected the plea of five university students who had moved the court  challenging the adoption of UGC May 2016 notification. The notification puts a cap on the number of students a professor can supervise in  MPhil/PhD. For instance the Center for European Studies only has intake for one student in MPhil/PhD, as opposed to last year’s 15 students.