JNU teachers’ body demands fair evaluation for candidates, transparency in admissions

The Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers’ Association (JNUTA) has demanded that a consultation process be initiated across the university to evolve guidelines for conducting viva voce and evaluating candidates in a fair manner.

The teachers’ body has also demanded that the university administration makes public all the data regarding marks scored by its students in a bid to maintain transparency.

The demands come in the backdrop of allegations by students and teachers that there were anomalies in the process of admission to PhD programmes of the varsity.

“All data, in the past, pertaining to the final selection, including the marks obtained by candidates in written and viva voce examinations were posted on a notice board by the administration. However, this practice was stopped a few years back and candidates are now only provided information about their own marks,” the JNUTA said in a statement on December 24.

“JNUTA also demands that a university-wide consultation be initiated so as to evolve guidelines for conducting viva voce and evaluating performance of applicants in a fair manner. At the moment, there are no clear guidelines in the university about how interview boards should be constituted and candidates be evaluated,” the statement from JNUTA read.

There have been allegations that in some centres, chairpersons have unilaterally taken decisions about the process to be followed, indicative of prima facie evidence of unfairness in the selection process, the JNUTA said. However, the university administration denied the allegations.

JNUTA said it stands with the demands that have been made for transparency in the admission process. The endeavour to institutionalise a free and fair process of access represents a challenge which must be given utmost priority and satisfactorily addressed without any delay, the teachers’ association added.

JNUTA also urged the university administration to reinstate the system of ‘deprivation points’ that existed for applicants at the PhD level and review the impact that the changes in admission policy, including outsourcing of the conduct of Jawaharlal Nehru University Entrance Exam (JNUEE) to National Testing Agency, has had on the overall student profile of the university.

Under the ‘Deprivation points’ system, JNU’s Centre for the Study of Law and Governance submitted a report on literacy rate of districts, agricultural productivity and other parameters. And students coming from districts scoring low on these parameters were given preference during the admission process.