Quotas in PhD admissions sparks a debate

Updated on: Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Chennai: University of Madras vice chancellor G Thiruvasagam's proposal to introduce caste-based reservation in PhD admissions in university departments has evoked mixed reactions in a state that has been at the forefront of the reservation movement. This is perhaps the first time a state university is venturing into an initiative to extend quotas in doctoral degree programmes in arts, science and commerce.

The proposal comes at a time when there is stiff resistance from sections of academia and students to extending reservations to super-specialty programmes in professional education. The judiciary too, of late, has been disapproving of policies to reserve seats for students in premier institutions on communal basis unless seats are proportionately increased for the Open Competition' category students.

Just last month, the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) council headed by former ISRO director K Kasturirangan, resolved to write to the Union human resources development ministry seeking exemption from implementing reservation in its flagship PhD programmes. The ministry had earlier exempted eight institutions of national repute including the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research from implementing the OBC quota for PhD programmes.

Without going into the implications of bringing in caste-based quota in PhD admissions, eminent academic and Indian Institute of Technology (Kanpur & Rajasthan) board of governors chairman M Anandakrishnan is of the view that considering the fact that enrolment into PhD programmes is fairly low in the country "we should encourage as many people as possible to come forward and pursue research".

At the same time, he cautioned that authorities have to ensure that minimum criteria (for entry into PhD) are maintained while admitting students of reserved categories so that the quality of research does not become a casualty. "For several years now we have been roughly producing around 12,000 PhDs annually, whereas China has overtaken us by nearly 10 times. Therefore, we should attract as many people as possible to do PhD, but the entry criteria should not be allowed to go down," Anandakrishnan reasoned.

It remains to be seen how Thiruvasagam and his team do the tightrope walk on this. Nonetheless, an aspect that needs to be welcomed is that the vice chancellor is keen that no seat should fall vacant on account of reservations. He has promised to evolve guidelines for transferring vacant quota seats to the general category.

While caste-based quotas at the undergraduate level have been implemented across the country as part of policy to uplift socially disadvantaged sections, extending them to doctoral and specialty courses certainly remains an unsettled issue.

Quotas in PhD admissions sparks a debate

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