The demand comes amid complaints from students and staff that there were irregularities in the university’s admissions procedure for Ph.D. programs, particularly discrimination against students from marginalized groups. The Teachers’ Association of Jawaharlal Nehru University urged on Friday that a consultation be undertaken across the varsity to develop standards for conducting viva voce and fairly evaluating candidates.
“The administration used to post all data relevant to the final selection, including the marks received by candidates in written and viva voce tests, on a notice board. This practice, however, was discontinued a few years ago, and candidates are now solely given information on their own grades “According to the JNUTA. The teachers’ union demanded that the university administration make all information about the grades received by individual candidates public, as it has in the past.
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“JNUTA also requests that a university-wide dialogue be held to develop standards for conducting viva voces and fairly evaluating applicants’ performance. There are now no clear guidelines in place at the university regarding the composition of interview panels and the evaluation of candidates ” in a statement, it added. The university administration, on the other hand, refuted the charges. JNUTA stated that it agrees with the requests for transparency in the admissions process.
JNUTA also urged the university administration to reinstate the deprivation points system for Ph.D. applicants, as well as review the impact that changes in admission policy, such as outsourcing the conduct of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Entrance Exam (JNUEE) to the National Testing Agency, have had on the university’s overall student profile. “This is required in the backdrop of recurrent complaints that students from disadvantaged backgrounds face increased exclusion in the new system,” it continued, “and improve affirmative action to minimize disparity in institutional admission to higher education.”
