JNU thread part #2 : Have explored questions raised by many. Do JNU students really need financial support to sustain? Are they really meritorious & top talent ? Do they complete their study in time or is the perception of overstaying correct ?
Why do majority students think on socialistic lines at JNU when students at other places don’t? Finally, why do they keep protesting on every govt decision ? What decisions are hurting the university & what is the protest all about?Lets explore with more data at hand. Here we go
Do JNU students really represent the merit? How many do complete degrees in time?Since PhD scholars represent 35% of the total campus strength (~2724 out of 8000, which is one of a kind in the world at this scale), lets explore the merit argument for PhD students.
Here is a distribution of JNU PhD students, their joining dates & passing parentage within 4 years. I assume that meritorious students should be able to finish the course in stipulated 3 years or max 4 years. Numbers tell a different story 
My observations: 27% of the PhD batch i.e. 563 students are clearly overstaying their welcome. Also notice about 563 for whom there is no data available. So this could be as high as 40% PhD students overstaying beyond 4 yrs. But there is devil in details.
A careful examination reveals that Science students are doing good. Computation & integrative sciences is an exception here due to nature of extensive research involved & unpredictable outcomes. This is understandable.90% of science students at JNU appear to be doing fine on pace
The picture is very different for students in faculties of Social sciences(Humanities),language & International studies. If you're undergoing a PhD in the Arts courses, there is a 50 % chance that every 1 of 3 students will go into 5th year of PhD. Is that brilliance? I doubt it
Why do humanities student slow down during PhDs & why do most of them have similar views?After-all, values take time to build & there is no way to “control what kind of students enter JNU” in a national level competitive exam. Or so I thought ! Until I read the admission process
I quote from brochure "Candidates seeking admission to M.Phil./Ph.D./, MTech, Ph.D., MPH. programmes are required to appear for a viva-voce examination which is assigned 100% marks". Shocker - 100% marks assigned to interview process ?
Simply put, the candidates are admitted thru an interview process once they secure a base minimum of 50% qualifying marks at written exam stage. What if the admission to the Indian Civil Services exam is 100% dependent on interviews ? Who do you think would get in ? Merrit ?
Are the JNU students really poor?Any data which calls for income levels is extremely difficult to obtain in India. I found something interesting. 36% JNU students have studied in public schools.And they protest fee hike which is at absurd levels now !! Really ? I rest my case
What is the JNU protest all about ?Earlier article explored how an absurdly low fee structure fails to create any incentive for the students to join the working pool. This leaves ample time for everything else, protests included.
Here is another simple issue that seems to be at the root of how the university has been used to operate & why it is resisting change or any sort of questions on its functioning. . Below table indicates the faculty strength at JNU & how many research students it can admit
We clearly see that maximum permitted strength for M.Phil. is 1011 & PhDs is 3192 students. So JNU can’t have more than ~4200 students for research level courses. My sense is that they are already at ~4100 students combined for M.Phil. & PhDs. So just about bursting the cap.
You know how serious this is & how is this impacting the university students ? See this:
So, a university that hired 924 & 886 scholars for research courses in 2015 & 2016 offers just 75 seats for 2017 ? Just because the University failed to plan the capacity as per UGC norms & some old guards decide to overstay their scholarly welcome at the campus.
I can understand why the current class in M.Phil. may be angry at the changing norms at campus. They lost their guaranteed seat at the PhD course. Just because UGC decided to implement the norms. You think they are protesting for “national interest” ? Think again.
The students filed a court case in 2017 against UGC ruling limiting the admission strength.Delhi high court dismissed the plea. It said the university will neither receive grant nor could award degrees if it didn't follow the UGC’s regulation.
Why are the students protesting almost every year now & against all decisions of central government, that too when it receives heavy grant from the government?
To me, this appears a classic case of a set of people who just refuse to move ahead or change with times.
To me, this appears a classic case of a set of people who just refuse to move ahead or change with times.
Scholars for whom the government spends almost 7 lac per student annually & majority of them get selected for research courses by an opaque “interview” process. They want to question the government & promote a culture of reasoning but refuse to be questioned on their systems.
Students, whose research outcomes are hardly anything to speak of, but the university wants more student intake & thereby more grants from government on their own terms. A student cohort that is trailing in the 1970s era & refuses to be questioned by society that pays for it.
Anti-national ? I don’t know. But the above behavior at JNU is certainly not in national interest. For those sensible millennials who still ask – why did socialism fail ? Well, this is exactly why.
Detailed answer on Quora: qr.ae/Te4jew
