JNU PhD Admission: 'Students Discriminated Against on Basis of Caste, Religion’

"Students from reserved categories were marked poorly in the viva for PhD entrance exams."

Students of JNU have been protesting against Viva conducted during PhD. entrances.

(Image altered by The Quint)

Video Producer: Maaz Hasan
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For years the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has been one of India’s top universities, so one would expect fairness and transparency in the admission process. But that isn’t the case.

The university has been discriminating against the students on the basis of their identity. During the admissions for PhD programmes, students from SC, ST, OBC, and minority communities are being marked on the basis of their caste, religion, and ideology.

“In JNU this year, during vivas for PhD admission, teachers gave 1, 2, 3 marks to the students belonging to SC/ST and OBC communities, and, in the process, denied them a chance to study at the university.”

Omprakash Mahto, Student, JNU

Several students from the reserved categories have complained that they were asked irrelevant questions and were marked incorrectly in viva voce. These students scored good marks in their written exams but due to the dismal scores in the oral exams, they missed the cut-off.

It’s not just us, the students of JNU, alone raising the issue, but the university’s own committees over the years have agreed that discrimination occurs in the viva voce.

The Professor Abdul Nafey committee in its report had mentioned that there was a consistent difference between the marks scored by the students in written and viva voce over the years, which indicated that discrimination exists.

Professor Abdul Nafey committee report

The committee also recommended reducing the weightage of viva voce from 30 to 15 marks.

But we as students demand that viva voce should be scrapped completely as discrimination would continue even with 15 marks.

We hope that the JNU administration would understand the matter and take this issue seriously as any irresponsible step would push the students from underprivileged communities out of the university and thus would leave them devoid of higher education.

The Quint has reached out to the administration of Jawaharlal Nehru University. Their response is awaited. The story would be updated if and when we receive a response.

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