This was indeed a good start of the year for Deshdeep Dhankhar. The email from the University of Hyderabad's Deputy Registrar on December 31, 2020, was definitely a surprise, if not a shocker. "Congratulations on being admitted to the University of Hyderabad," it read.
Now a student of MA Political Science in the university, this University of Delhi grad tells us that the journey was definitely not a smooth one. The last time when we spoke to Deshdeep, he had cried foul over UoH closing the admissions to its master''s courses unusually early, even before the other universities released their entrance rank lists. "I was told that the admissions were closed on November 19 and received a refund for the same. I had bagged the 36th rank and holder of the 34th rank had secured admission. I know students who had migrated to universities with a better ranking," he then said.
What followed, Deshdeep says, was sending a series of emails to the authorities and the university and visiting the UGC and the Ministry of Education regularly. "It was quite a stressful journey. I had mental breakdowns frequently. At one point, I even kicked the UGC building's gate," he says.
"I first wrote to University officials on December 2. The one-sided email writing went until I wrote to Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal and his team. I received a disappointing reply on December 22 in response to the email I wrote to Education Minister and University officials together, in which somehow university officials tried to get away with responsibilities by shifting responsibility on UGC. Since the UGC guidelines were in complete favour of students and entire education system, I again on 23rd December physically reached out to UGC officials to take up the matter," says Deshdeep. "On my request, the UGC Joint secretary verbally contacted official of the University of Hyderabad and wrote an email to them," he says.
Now upon receiving a positive response, Deshdeep says that he is yet to process the information. "Along with me, 10 other students also got admission to the same course now," he says. "I feel I was able to fight this battle for higher education because I was in a privileged place and in Delhi where I could approach the UGC and other institutions physically. Many of the fellow students from other parts of India did not have an option other than mailing officials and endlessly waiting for the response," he adds.
