Around eight PhD candidates aiming for admission at the Jamia Millia Islamia’s AJK Mass Communication and Research Centre have allegedly been denied admission on September 12, 2022, the last day of completing admission-related formalities in the college.

The candidates claimed that their names were included in the final list of candidates that were selected for the programme — the list which is still up on the website. This official list was released on August 11 and included the names of 19 candidates. However, when they reached the campus on September 12, albeit after the administration extended the last date of completing admission formalities, they were allegedly informed that a new list of final candidates had been released. They claimed that this list denied admission to eight of them.

Last-moment cancellation

While earlier, the administration had not provided them any reason for cancelling their admission, they were told later that no supervisor is available for their topic. “Why wasn’t this informed to us one month ago? They selected us in the final list and gave us admission on August 11 but at the very last minute, we were given this reason,” said one of the candidates whose admission was cancelled, on the condition of anonymity.

A few students also claimed that while the whole admission process was conducted online, only the “final” list which they introduced on the last day of admission, was not uploaded online. “This list wasn’t even handed to us. We were just told that our name is not on the list,” the student alleged. The original list, which still included their names, was still on the website even then, the students said.

Concerned students did try to approach the administration but they were met with no clear responses from any of them, the students said. “We wasted one and a half years working on this and now it has all gone to waste. We might need to try to apply to other universities but the admission process has already concluded for most of them,” said another candidate who was allegedly denied admission, on the condition of anonymity. 

Students have also sent letters regarding the same to the office of the University Grants Commission (UGC). “But they said that since Jamia is a central university, UGC cannot recommend them to do anything,” the student said. 

More on PhD admissions

Another batch of students who were aiming to pursue PhD in the institute claimed that the administration denied them admission on the grounds that they were not eligible as per the eligibility criteria. One such student, on the condition of anonymity, told EdexLive that she completed her master's in 2022 and applied for PhD after an admission notification was released in March 2022. The students claimed that the notification did not mention any eligibility criteria. “However, when I reported on the last day of completing admission formalities, they said that it is not for our batch, it is for the batch until 2021 only,” the student said.

The student expressed dismay as the administration had not raised this eligibility issue during the other formalities of the admission procedure — application and interview — which many such students appeared for and cleared without any trouble as well.

The university released a notification later on August 27 stating that only students upto session 2020-21 are eligible for the admission. 

However, when EdexLive reached out to an official from the university to seek clarity regarding the allegation of students, the official said that the PhD admissions were conducted according to the rules. "It was conducted properly according to our written rules and norms," the official added.