On the face of it, the UGC move to bring down the student-teacher ratio at research level seems very rational. After all, when international rankings of educational institutions are released, the student-teacher ratio and quality of teaching are important criteria, and cramped classrooms can\u2019t aspire to figure on these lists. \u201cNo Indian institute among top 200 world universities, experts worried<\/em>\u201d, read a Hindustan Times<\/em> headline in September 2016 when the Times Global rankings were released.<\/p>\n

But then, there is more to it than meets the eye. Academics from JNU and Delhi University have voiced concerns at the long-term harm it will cause. The first issue that comes to mind is its impact on inclusivity. JNU is one of the few universities offering quality higher education and research opportunities at affordable cost. By limiting the number of seats, the government is shutting the door of opportunity on the poor.<\/p>\n

$\"Posters$ <\/a>
Posters and graffiti in JNU<\/p><\/div>\n
Ajay Gudavarthy, associate professor of political science at JNU, says the move has been inspired by the aim of maintaining parity with global universities, but it can\u2019t be feasible in a country of India\u2019s size, where aspirations of people are now high. \u201cThe logic is fine, but you don\u2019t have too many universities like JNU which can fulfil those aspirations of poor. This move will close opportunities for the disadvantaged youth of India.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ayesha Kidwai, professor at Centre of Linguistics in JNU, says this will push higher education out of the reach of poor. \u201cSo many youngsters come to JNU because they can avail of the opportunity by paying the same fee as the rich. Now, a good, affirmative action has been ended through this regulation. Instead of spreading such models of education, we are shrinking these options.\u201d<\/p>\n
Depleting research base<\/strong><\/p>\n
Then again, if you reduce the number of research scholars, who will teach at the level of higher education?<\/p>\n
In a UGC report of 2008 titled \u201cHigher Education in India: Issues Related to Expansion, Inclusiveness, Quality and Finance\u201d, the then UGC chairman S Thorat had written about the then 11th Five Year Plan: \u201cThe 11th Plan recognised that the availability of adequate and qualified faculty is a pre-requisite for quality education. It also recognised that due to restrictions on the recruitment of the faculty in the state universities and colleges in 1980\u2019s and 1990\u2019s by various states, we faced serious problems related to the availability of faculty.\u201d It seems that wisdom has again been lost on the policy makers.<\/p>\n
Kidwai says that the national enrolment for PhDs is 0.5 percent. In all central universities it\u2019s 3.2 percent, whereas in JNU it\u2019s 62.5 percent. Now, this will come down to 15 to 20 percent. \u201cDo you want MAs to teach in colleges?\u201d she asks.<\/p>\n
Abha Dev Habib, who teaches at Miranda House, Delhi University, says that for all the complaints that the research output is not good, we are reducing public money in education and the research grants have been constantly decreasing since 2013. The number of research proposals that have received grants has also come down and many institutions are feeling the pinch. Teachers in higher education are seen as a financial liability, because once they are recruited, they will have to be promoted, too. It\u2019s clear, therefore, that all means are being adopted to dissuade research and recruitment in public institutions of higher learning.<\/p>\n
The logical extension of this is that private universities will get more and more room to operate in research space, too. But as Gudavarthy points out, it will leave the poor out of the ambit of research. \u201cAbout 50 percent of the students we have are poor. They will have to go back.\u201d They might have to compromise on their dreams by joining second-rung universities, because private universities are outside their means.<\/p>\n
What are the options?<\/strong><\/p>\n
Despite the Delhi High Court having already dismissed a petition from students for a stay on the UGC strictures on certain technical grounds, Siddiqui says the academics will not give in and that they will seek further legal recourse. But with the admission season already commencing, the future of at least the current batch of admission-seekers stands jeopardised.<\/p>\n
The question that needs to be addressed in the long run is, what alternative does the government intend to provide to those who stand to lose? Are other universities on the anvil, offering research facilities on a par with JNU? Or does the government want to wean away youth from research and have them take up vocational and job-oriented courses only?<\/p>\n
Move smacks of anti-intellectualism<\/strong><\/p>\n
Another dimension of the limit imposed on research students is the issue of politicisation. Abha Dev Habib puts it bluntly when she says that the government is disturbed by social movements. She says that JNU has a large number of research students who spend much more time on the campus than MA students, and there are more chances of their getting politicised. The government wants to minimise those chances. Kidwai agrees, saying this move smacks of \u201canti-intellectualism\u201d.<\/p>\n
The seat reduction has hit international studies and social sciences\u2014disciplines associated with asking questions and with reasoning, in particular. Gudavarthy adds: \u201cThey don\u2019t want a critical society. The focus is more on technology and vocational education. We will have a dearth of public intellectuals that way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perhaps the move is also part of the shift away from research culture. After all, the Prime Minister has already set the agenda with \u201cHarvard vs hard work\u201d. There\u2019s nothing wrong in having people respect vocational professions. But it takes all kinds of people to make this world. Pushing the pendulum to the other extreme will be counterproductive.<\/p>\n
At this juncture, the questions need to be answered by policy-makers.<\/p>\n
Photos by Anil Shakya and Meha Mathur<\/strong>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]UGC\u2019s decision to drastically cut the number of seats in MPhil and PhD courses will deplete JNU\u2019s research base and affect education and society in ways policy-makers cannot at present contemplate By Meha Mathur Even as the Kanhaiya Kumar issue was cooling off within the JNU campus, the premier central university of the country was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":14544,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1497,2046],"tags":[461,3109,3108,1124,3106,3107,3105],"yst_prominent_words":[],"ppma_author":[140543],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/d2r2ijn7njrktv.cloudfront.net\/apnlive\/uploads\/2017\/04\/JNU-featured.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":140543,"user_id":4,"is_guest":0,"slug":"apnnewsdesk","display_name":"APN Live","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/478eacb893eda88aa6ed8d99b005bf58?s=96&r=g"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14540"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14540"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=14540"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=14540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}