JNU teachers slam academic planning for next semester

New Delhi: Teachers at Jawaharlal Nehru University have criticised the university's academic planning for the upcoming semester, calling the schedule "illogical" and "fraught with inconsistencies".

They flagged a series of alleged administrative lapses, most notably in the handling of admissions, particularly for PhD programmes. JNU Teachers' Association (JNUTA) alleged that the administration's method, combining percentile scores from NET with raw viva voce marks, violated basic principles of statistics and skewed the final merit list, "effectively rendering the written exam marks meaningless".

While the semester is scheduled to begin on July 9, the admission process for first-year students was unlikely to conclude before the end of July, they alleged. PhD admissions, they pointed out, could stretch as late as Sept, throwing the semester's coherence into question. The statement pointed to alleged delays in both undergraduate and postgraduate admissions, irregularities in PhD entrance procedures, and a broader lack of transparency and consultation within the institution. The university administration did not respond to queries.

As per the academic calendar, continuing students were scheduled to begin registration on July 2, with classes commencing on July 9. However, the first round of UG and PG admissions would not conclude until July 29, with subsequent rounds expected to stretch into mid-Aug, said teachers. JNUTA argued that this fragmented timeline will leave the new students with a significantly shortened semester. The admissions to doctoral programmes were pushed to Sept, prompting concerns that students who sat for UGC-NET in June might be unfairly excluded due to the delay in result declarations.