The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the RSS, has asked the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) to re-link the MPhil and PhD programmes for current students at the university, keeping in mind the complications arising out of the National Education Policy (NEP) and the Covid-19.

JNU had scrapped its integrated MPhil-PhD programme in the year 2018. Before that, applicants would only need to sit for an entrance at the MPhil stage; admission into PhD was determined by their CGPA. After delinking both the courses, entrances began being held at both stages.

Now, in the NEP, the MPhil programme has been scrapped altogether.

“The National Education Policy, 2020 has introduced unprecedented reforms in the school and higher educational system. Taking cognizance of the reforms and the turbulent period we are going through, the following demand is being sought continuously… on an urgent basis,” ABVP JNU president Shivam Chaurasia and secretary Rohit Kumar wrote to the Vice-Chancellor on Monday.

“Due to Covid-19 pandemic and a subsequent introduction of National Education Policy, 2020, a peculiar situation has arisen because of which we request re-linking of MPhil-PhD for the batches: 2019-21, 2020-22. This is line with the extensions given by the Ministry of Education, and provides viable solution to students’ grievances,” they wrote.

ABVP said the “re-linking would be crucial for the current MPhil students of 2019-21 and 2020-22 batches”.

“They will be forced to reappear for entrances to PhD program and at the same time be concerned about completing their MPhil, a programme that has been scrapped in the New Education Policy. In this regard we request the JNU Administration to do the necessary at the earliest,” they wrote.

Vice-chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar could not be reached for comment.

Source: The Indian Express

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