After receiving backlash from the Ambedkar Students’ Association (ASA), a minority students’ group at Hyderabad Central University (HCU), the university released a list of shortlisted PhD candidates for admission into the Physics department of the university.
An official notification was released by the university dated Wednesday, March 13, regarding the same.
The university had announced eight PhD vacancies in the Physics department for the January 2024 session. Out of these, seven vacancies were for students from reserved categories.
An exam was conducted for the said vacancies by the university and 18 shortlisted students were called for the interview process.
However, the ASA complained that despite conducting the admission process, the university refused to fill any seats.
As per a statement released by the student group, the Dean of the School of Physics, HCU, said that the vacant seats will be carried forward to next academic year as none of the examinees scored “sufficient marks”.
“The Physics department has been notoriously famous for its violation of reservation norms. ASA fought against the Physics department flouting reservation norms and leaving reserved category seats unfilled in 2016 and again in 2021. In 2022, ASA uncovered gross systemic discrimination in marking reserved category students in PhD interviews by the Physics Department,” the student group said in its statement.
