Jaipur: Rajasthan University (RU) has cancelled the PhD admissions of four students in the past few days, triggering fresh protests by students who have alleged irregularities in the admission process and demanded a high-level inquiry.As per the memorandum submitted by the students to governor Haribhau Bagde Thursday, demanding a high-level inquiry into the entire PhD admission process, the four candidates are identified as Shivangi Singh from home science (unreserved category), Prajapati Dilkhush (OBC category) and Pooja (SC category) from economics, and Muskan (OBC category) from the psychology department. They alleged that the university has not communicated the reasons for cancellation of the admissions.Shivangi said she had paid Rs 36,600 in fees and secured admission in Saraswati Women’s Hostel after getting admission to the PhD programme on Aug 18. “I skipped an interview at Kanpur University after securing admission at RU. I want justice. Nobody is telling me why my admission was cancelled,” she said.Postdoctoral fellow Sajjan Saini said, “Students are being subjected to mental harassment. The administration has made a mockery of a degree like a doctorate. It is particularly ironic that two of the students whose admissions have been cancelled are from the economics department, from which the vice-chancellor herself comes. The administration should clearly state why their admissions were cancelled.”Students also demanded suspension of the coursework that began on Sept 1 and admission against vacant seats in accordance with the state reservation policy, Supreme Court directions and the rules followed by Maharshi Dayanand Saraswati University, Ajmer. In the memorandum, they claimed they had been raising the issue with VC and Rajasthan University PhD Admission (RUPA) convener for the past 23 days but had not received a satisfactory response.TOI tried to contact RU vice-chancellor Alpana Kateja for her response, but she could not be reached.
