PhD admission to foreign students only if seats are left vacant after being offered to Indian candidates: JNU

The move comes after three students from Afghanistan had reached out to the JNU Vice-Chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar requesting him to ease the process for Afghan students to get admission to PhD courses amid the ongoing situation in their country.

The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has announced that foreign students will get admission to PhD courses only if there are seats are left vacant after being offered to the Indian candidates who have appeared for the JNU Entrance Exam (JNUEE) 2021.

The move comes after three students from Afghanistan had reached out to the JNU Vice-Chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar requesting him to ease the process for Afghan students to get admission to PhD courses amid the ongoing situation in their country.

JNU every year conducts the entrance exam for admission into various courses and the admission policy has been devised as per the UGC guidelines and Central government's rules fore reservation of seats for different categories. 

JNU in a statement said, "separate merit lists are prepared for candidates belonging to the general category, scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, other backward classes, economically weaker sections and PWD category and also in respect of foreign nationals for each programme of study."

“The admission of foreign students for PhD programme is considered in compliance with UGC 2016 Regulations regarding the number of research scholars faculty members can supervise. Foreign students are offered PhD admission only if seats are left vacant in any discipline after being offered to Indian candidates who have appeared in the JNU entrance exam,” the statement further read.

The National Testing Agency conducts computer-based tests (CBT) for JNU Admission 2021. Schools and special centres of JNU conduct the viva voce tests wherever applicable, it said.
The final selection of candidates for admission to various programmes of study is made “on the basis of inter-se merit of candidates in their respective categories based on their performance in the CBT and viva voce (wherever prescribed),” it said.

"Significantly, PhD admissions at JNU are based on the 2016 University Grants Commission gazette notification and the number of seats in each category is fixed and announced well in advance in the prospectus, the statement said. The number of PhD seats is based on available vacancies with each faculty member and available research resources," the University said in the notification.

JNU has no authority to create supernumerary PhD positions while supernumerary positions are possible in non-PhD programmes, the notification said.

“As per the admission policy of the university, JNU allocates five per cent supernumerary seats for widows/wards of Armed Forces Personnel killed/disabled in action or during peacetime for admission to university programmes.”

“These supernumerary seats are earmarked for UG/PG/Part-time programmes, but not in BTech, MSc (Biotechnology), MSc (Computational and Integrative Sciences), MBA and PhD programmes,” the JNU said.

Read More:

• JNUEE 2021 answer key released
• JNU Placements
• JNU Admissions