Hyderabad Central University (HCU) will form an internal committee to look into the alarming rate of PhD dropouts, the university’s Vice-Chancellor Professor BJ Rao informed.
Speaking to EdexLive, Prof BJ Rao, Vice-Chancellor, HCU, said that PhD dropouts have been increasing across all institutions and this is a matter of concern.
“While determining why students are dropping out can be challenging, we will form a committee to analyse how many students have dropped out recently. So far we do not have any official data. There could be several reasons behind the dropouts, the pandemic being a major factor,” he said.
This intervention comes after a five-day-long protest which started on Thursday, July 27, at the HCU campus by seven minority students’ associations, led by the Bahujan Students’ Front (BSF).
The protestors have been demanding immediate restoration of the cancelled PhD admissions, permission for PhD candidates to submit their thesis and detailed data on dropouts and their reasons.
The associations have alleged that a total of 107 PhD admissions have been cancelled by HCU due to the university’s "arbitrary rules" in the aftermath of the pandemic and from these, an alarming number of the students are from marginalised communities.
However, the university has informed that these numbers are not official.
Protests called off
After receiving a response from the university administration, the student association BSF has decided to “temporarily” call off the protests.
“Today (August 1), a meeting has been scheduled with the Vice-Chancellor including all the protesting student associations. We will discuss the issue of PhD dropouts at length and various concerns in addition to it. We will take a call on the future of protests based on the response,” explained Harish Chiluka, President of BSF-HCU.
Along with BSF, the protest was also joined by the Tribal Students’ Forum (TSF), Muslim Students’ Federation (MSF), All India OBC Students’ Association (AIOBCSA), Fraternity Movement, National Students' Union of India (NSUI) and All India Students’ Association (AISA).
