Jadavpur University has been asked to submit records covering how students were admitted to its PhD programmes over the past 10 years, placing the university’s research admission procedures under scrutiny after allegations of irregularities in entrance tests.
The higher education department has sought department-wise details of PhD admissions, and university registrar will send the records, vice-chancellor Chiranjib Bhattacharjee told Metro. He said the university would decide its next course of action on PhD admissions after the department gives its opinion.
The request comes about a month after the department directed state-aided universities to discontinue their own research entrance tests, or RETs, for PhD admissions. In an order dated August 5, the department asked universities to use scores from examinations such as UGC-NET, UGC-CSIR NET and GATE, followed by an interview. It also requested universities not to conduct PhD Admission Tests or RETs.
The department’s decision followed allegations of irregularities in university-level examinations raised by teachers’ and students’ organisations affiliated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. The Akhil Bharatiya Rashtriya Shaikshik Mahasangh, the RSS’s teachers’ wing, wrote to the Jadavpur vice-chancellor last week seeking a probe by a central investigating agency into alleged irregularities in the university’s PhD admissions.
ABRSM president Bhaskar Sardar alleged that the Jadavpur University Teachers’ Association, which has many Left-leaning teachers among its members, manipulated the admission test to ensure that only Left supporters were admitted. He described the alleged process as an “admission racket”. These allegations have not been established by an investigation or adjudicated by any authority.
Nikhil Das, president of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad unit at Jadavpur University, said the RSS-affiliated teachers’ association had informed the education department about alleged anomalies in the conduct of the RET.
A department official said the university had the option of admitting candidates through national-level tests followed by interviews. The official said the allegation was that the university had conducted its own admission test and that the transparency of those tests had been questioned.
The university’s position is that RETs were conducted in disciplines where national-level examinations are not available. A Jadavpur professor and JUTA member said the university held RETs in subjects including nanoscience and technology and instrumentation science because the UGC does not conduct NET examinations in those disciplines. The professor also cited film studies as a humanities subject without a corresponding NET examination.
The professor said Jadavpur University conducted the tests in accordance with UGC regulations issued in 2022 and that the department’s directive curtailed the university’s autonomy. The department’s request for 10 years of records is expected to provide the basis for its review of the university’s admission practices. The registrar is to submit the details, after which the department will give its opinion and the university will decide its next steps.
