Ensure Fellowship For ALL Research Students!

Reject UGC’s Dubious Logic of ‘Merit’ !

Rights Cannot Be Withdrawn! Struggles Cannot Be Detained!

Voices Cannot Be Silenced!

 #SaveNonNETfellowship movement continues braving ABVP’s lumpenism,  day long detention at Bhalsava Police Station and police lathi-charge on protesting students!

The movement, that has already assumed an all India form with students across states and universities now coming out on streets, will continue till the government is forced to revoke its anti-student move!

It is extremely shameful that the government is using the goon strength of ABVP to mislead the student community by creating consistent confusion over the state of fellowship and encouraging them to unleash their lumpensim by pelting stones and hurling abuses on protesting students.  Additionally, the UGC itself is trying to now cover up their blatant violation of students’ rights by issuing conflicting and confusing statements to the media while continuing to refuse meet student groups and now introducing absurd logic of merit determined through ‘NET Exam’.

It is important to respond to these statements, especially the suggestion to grant non-NET fellowships on the basis of “merit” and not on a universal basis, since we firmly believe that funding for research is a hard won right of ALL research students contributing to a collective process of knowledge generation in this country. The non-NET fellowship must be extended to all central and state universities, however, the logic of merit determined through ‘NET’ exam needs to be challenged and defeated!

This logic of ‘merit’ is faulty owing to several reasons:

1. First and foremost, the entry to research degrees like M.Phil. and Ph.D is through a process of entrance and hence the research eligibility of a student is evaluated at this stage itself. If a student is selected for the course of M.Phil or Ph.D, it means that he/she has been deemed eligible for research and hence the state must facilitate this process of research by way of suitable fellowship that will adequately cover the cost incurred while pursuing research.
2. The NET-JRF exam which is being cited in this debate as measure for determining “merit” has itself come under scanner in past several years with questions being raised at its question pattern and evaluation system!! Scholars have criticised NET exam pattern for being an uncritical adaptation of administrative-services exam and ill suited to measure research or even teaching aptitude. Every year there are questions asked in NET exam that have been found to be lacking both in logic as well as conceptual grounding. The faulty evaluation system too has been a consistent problem with NET exams. Recently, the official answer key of UGC-NET Persian exam contained 94 wrong answers due to which no one in India cleared JRF in Persian. (It was only after the interventions of vigilant students in JNU and elsewhere and the JNUSU-SLL&CS that this anomaly was corrected). Instead of revisiting such a flawed exam system, it is downright outrageous that the same is now being also used to determine non-NET fellowship!!

Let us not forget that the sword of ‘merit’ logic has been used for centuries by the ruling classes to deny entry to those who have been deliberately excluded from the educational and cultural sphere. The oppressed castes, poor people, oppressed minorities, especially Muslims (as pointed out by the Sachar Committee report), Dalits and women have got the most to lose from this dangerous proposition.

The government must realise that the number of years a student spends to pursue M.Phil. or Ph.D. are not just years spent in persuasion of a degree but years spent in generation of knowledge that is crucial for the development of the nation! If the non NET fellowships are withdrawn, only those students will be able to pursue research who either come from affluent backgrounds or those who are willing to comply with vested interests and agendas of the private players for the purpose of funding.

Pursuing research is an expensive undertaking and withdrawal of fellowship will only result in : (i) Excluding the deprived and marginalised sections from contributing to knowledge generation– making knowledge produced in the country monolithic, majoriatrian, insensitive to the existing pluralities and solely guided by the agenda of the privileged socio-cultural and economic sections and (ii) compromising the quality of research in the country. To ensure quality research which is contextual, sensitive to the specific problems confronting our people and reflective of our plurality, the arena of research must be accessible to all sections of the society-particularly those from deprived backgrounds. For quality, the process of knowledge production itself must necessarily be inclusive. And for that state funding of ALL research is a MUST!!

It is further surprising that the argument of “merit” to fund research is being cited during the reign of a government which so far has shown a very disturbing understanding of ‘merit’ going by the appointments it has been making in institutes like the ICHR and FTII, to name a few.

We reiterate that any proposal  by the UGC to cite the dubious logic of merit to curtail research funding must be rejected.

We stick to our demands of:     ·  Revocation of UGC decision to withdraw non-NET Fellowship   ·  To increase fellowships from Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 8,000 for MPhil and from Rs. 8,000 to Rs. 12,000 for PhD scholars.  ·   To extend non NET fellowships to all central and state universities.

We will reject any deviation from the original agenda. We further demand that the Government of India refrain from signing the impending WTO agreement to bring education under tradable services or face massive protests.

And till then the movement will continue and no detentions or crackdowns can stop us!!