The award of PhD degree on Higher Education Minister KT Jaleel in 2006 was in adherence to all norms and conditions, the Kerala University has said. The clarification came in the wake of Governor Arif Mohammad Khan directing the KU Vice Chancellor to look into a complaint that Jaleel's PhD degree from the varsity was of 'dubious academic merit'.
The petition against Jaleel's PhD degree was submitted to the Governor by the Save University Campaign Committee, a forum of education activists. R S Sasikumar, chairman of the forum said the demand in the petition was not to inquire whether the PhD degree was awarded as per norms. Instead, the petition had pointed that Jaeel's PhD thesis was nothing but "a disordered compendium of quotes" from various sources with very littleinferences by the researcher. Besides, the thesis was full of glaring errors. However, the University was not willing to examine the errors in his doctoral thesis or remove them. "Entrusting the Vice Chancellor of a university to probe the credentials of the PhD degree of a Minister, who is also the Pro Chancellor of the same university, is illogical," Sasikumar said.
He demanded thatt the Governor issue orders constituting an independent team of experts to examine Jaleel's PhD thesis. As per UGC norms, PhD theses are to be uploaded online but the university has not done so in Jaleel's case. Before the thesis is made available in the public domain, the university should take steps to remove the glaring errors so as to ensure the varsity's academic standards, Sasikumar demanded.
