PhD admissions at the Jamia Millia Islamia have been delayed by a year due to the coronavirus pandemic, officials said on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, the varsity released the notification for PhD entrance exams for the year 2020-21 instead of the current academic year 2021-22. The admission test will be held for different disciplines between June 22 and June 28 in two shifts while the results will be declared in the second week of July.
The reason for the delay is the pandemic situation, said Dr Nazim Hussain Jafri, Controller of Examinations at the varsity.
"There is no way the admissions can be held without an entrance test. There are 25 seats only. The results of masters were also delayed which affected the process. Earlier, dates were decided for the entrance tests but they could not happen due to the coronavirus situation," he said.
The Jamia Teachers' Association (JTA) said it had been raising the issue.
"It has been a major issue and we have raised it. It is due to our continuous efforts that the notification has been released. Due to the COVID-19 situation, the circumstances were such that the test was postponed twice. It was scheduled in April last year but could not happen due to the lockdown and then it was scheduled in October but due to the situation, it was postponed," the JTA said.
There have been some lapses on the varsity's part too and when they did admissions for other courses, they could have carried out PhD admissions too, it said.
"The PhD admissions happen only after undergraduate and postgraduate admissions and are conducted late. But we will demand that the varsity conduct the admissions for PhD for the year 2021-22 in August-September," it added.
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