Nagpur: Nagpur University Pro-vice chancellor Pramod Yeole, who is the chairman of Research Recognition Committee (RRC), has allegedly refused to even accept a request letter from students who had gone to demand a separate entrance for Master of Philosophy (MPhil).
The students, who are facing the risk of losing a year, were forced to submit the letter in the dispatch section after Yeole allegedly refused to meet them.
Denying the charges, Yeole said, “No student came to meet me till yesterday (Friday) evening. Even no representation was submitted to the vice chancellor.”
Earlier this week, the ProVC had told TOI that there was hardly any takers for MPhil and the NU was ready to hold an entrance if it received even a single request.
In their letter dated August 23, the students said, “We have cleared our post graduation on August 6 and wished to seek admission to MPhil. But the college we approached told us to produce Phd entrance test (PET) score. The PET was held in January and we didn’t get a chance to appear in the exam. Therefore, we request you to hold the entrance before September 6 so that we can save a year and take admission to MPhil.”
NU officials said though a committee was involved, the controversial direction for MPhil/PhD was a ‘brainchild’ of Yeole. “It has now become a prestige issue. He overlooked several facts. Now, non-application of mind will become evident if the NU changes its stand,” they said.
Some teachers said the NU administration must accept its fault and move on. “The Pro-VC is not ready to accept the fault. This is clear from the fact that he is not even ready to listen to the grievances. He may deny that he was approached by students but the fact doesn’t change. He must understand that there is no harm if he a mistake is admitted and rectified,” they said
On August 23, TOI had reported how the Nagpur University top brass failed to understand the University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines on admissions for research programmes. Yeole had claimed that the NU was following UGC norms for MPhil admissions. However, when TOI checked the guidelines, it found that the apex body has not mentioned a combined entrance for MPhil and PhD, as NU insists. Also, till date, NU has not specified whether
MPhil aspirants need to take PET-I and II, both, or only the first.
