Nagpur: Even as the extended deadline for philosophy of doctorate (PhD) registrations came to an end on Saturday, the Nagpur University (NU) refused to disclose the actual numbers till late in the evening.
The original cut off date was April 16, which the NU was compelled to extend till May 5 following several complains to the vice chancellor SP Kane by scholars. On Saturday too, the scholars continued to face same problems as they were facing a month ago.
Several guides and scholars again demanded that the NU further extend the registration and this time remove all shortcomings in the data uploaded on its portal. They also demanded that the PhD direction be modified to make it research-friendly.
This year, the NU had recorded one of its lowest number of eligible scholars at 63 after the two-phased entrance PET I and II. Since then, it was certain that the NU was staring at its worst ever scholar intake.
The so-called stringent norms incorporated this year too made registrations difficult with many scholars failing to find a suitable place of research and guide.
Vice chancellor SP Kane and Pro-VC Pramod Yeole, who in chairman of Research & Recognition Committee (RRC), didn’t answer to TOI’s calls.
Director of Board of Examinations and Evaluation Neeraj Khaty said he was yet to take stock of the registration numbers. Interestingly, the NU has implemented Management Information System (MIS) exclusively for its top officers to get real time data regarding exams, enrolments and registrations.
The complaints made to VC Kane and director Khaty mainly pertained to conditions such as an undertaking from the research guide and wrong or inaccurate data on the PhD portal that was started a month ago.
TOI has been consistently highlighting the harassment faced by scholars, guides and colleges, who were at the receiving end of skewed policies of the board of deans committee led by Pro-VC Pramod Yeole as well as inept PhD cell officials.
On October 22, TOI was the first to report about NU’s move to increase negative marking in PhD entrance test (PET) which ultimately led to abysmally low number of students qualifying for registration.
On January 11, TOI also questioned the tight schedule for registration in the light of several anomalies being exposed from time to time this season.
