Page 57 - EW-January-2026

(Hub) ones for mentorship, fostering dated 22.5 percent).
collaboration, and transforming In- The character of
dia's research landscape into a vibrant this showpiece na-
ecosystem for innovation and global tional university es-
leadership. tablished as an essen-
T THE OUTCOME OF students institution has also
tially deep research
changed under the
and faculty being ranged
against the JNU admin-
istration/management is new political dispen-
sation, inasmuch as
that this institution which shaped a research students are
large number of India’s best schol- now outnumbered by
ars, is in danger of losing its liberal students in undergrad
credentials. Students from backward Protesting students on JNU campus and postgraduate pro-
and disadvantaged communities grammes.
are increasingly becoming ineligible access to them except at cyber cafes; The count of research scholars
for admission owing to the policy of and are unlikely to be accustomed to has declined from 5,432 in 2016-17
‘deprivation points’ for admission is the MCQ format. to 3,286 in 2024-25 with their per-
endangered owing to JNU no longer Therefore two years on, there is centage declining from 62.2 percent
conducting its own entrance exam. a clear change in the composition of to 40.1 percent over the past decade.
Since the academic year 2022-23, students admitted, specifically from According to JNUTA spokespersons,
admission into postgraduate and the marginalised communities. The per- this is the result of UGC imposing a
handful of undergraduate courses is centage of women students on cam- uniform cap on the number of M.Phil
dependent on students’ performance pus, which had risen to 51.4 percent in and Ph D students who can be guided
in the Common University Entrance 2017-18, has plunged to 43.1 percent by faculty. Whereas 2009 UGC regu-
Test (CUET) conducted by the Na- in 2024-25. According to a JNUTA re- lations recommended caps on M.Phil
tional Testing Authority. CUET is in port, between 2021-22 and 2024-25, and Ph D scholars (e.g, eight Ph D and
the Multiple Choice Question (MCQ) scheduled castes (Dalit) students de- five M.Phil scholars), in 2016, under
format and needs to be accessed on a clined from 1,500 to 1,143, and sched- Jagadesh Kumar’s watch, the number
computer. Both these requirements uled tribe (ST) students from 741 to of scholars supervised by professors,
are hurdles for students from disad- 545. This has reduced the share of associate professors and assistant
vantaged communities, who may not the total SC and ST percentage to 21.1 professors was capped uniformly for
be familiar with computers or have no percent (cf. the constitutionally man- all universities withdrawing the dis-

JANUARY 2026 EDUCATIONWORLD 57