JNU's new attendance policy is flawed, argues research scholar

The most basic understanding about marking attendance is that there should be some classes, lectures, workshops and seminars conducted, and events to attend, attendance of which could be marked. The recent attendance circular, released by JNU administration, prescribes research students to mark their attendance every day in the attendance sheets, without having any classes to attend.

While the non-research students are asked to mark 75 per cent attendance in order to write the exams, the research students are asked to mark their attendance on all days of the year, except public holidays. The research fellows are allowed only 30 days leave in an academic year.

To a sane mind, this would seem pointless. Besides, the 75 per cent attendance criteria is not applicable to research students, but for students in B.A, M.A and M.Phil first year students who are non-researchers and have classes to attend.

There is no clarity in the attendance circular about the attendance criteria needed to be fulfilled by research students. If one goes by the wording of the current attendance circular, it would mean that for research students, the attendance rule is not 75 per cent, but 100 per cent. Is it realistic to expect anyone to fulfill the100 per cent attendance criteria?

Secondly, if the research students have to mark their attendance every day without any even having any classes, it would mean that there would be no summer and winter breaks for the researchers, as they have to be present in the university everyday, just to mark attendance. Worst situation is for the day scholar (non-hostellers) researchers who may have to travel 10 to 40 km everyday just to mark their attendance throughout the year.

Failing to fulfill this draconian criteria, the researchers would end up losing their fellowship and would be asked to vacate their hostels. Besides, it would affect their degrees.

The UGC circular, which prescribes 75 per cent attendance, clearly states, "The minimum number of lectures, tutorials, seminars and practicals which a student shall be required to attend for eligibility to appear at the examination shall be prescribed by the university, which ordinarily shall not be less than 75 per cent of the total number of lectures, tutorials, seminars, practicals, and any other prescribed requirements."

This would mean that only when there are lectures, tutorials, workshops, seminars held, it would make sense for the students to mark their attendance.

If this is not a complete waste of time, money and energy then what is? The case that is being presented in the public about this issue is that JNU students don’t want to attend classes and are hence opposing the circular. Those who have managed to spread this misinformation to distort the already- biased public opinion against JNU are certainly not naïve.

In a tussle between politically inclined students of the JNU and the political forces outside the campus, students who work silently and contribute with academic researches are at the receiving end.

JNU, besides being one of the premiere educational institutions in the country, is a research institution with a majority being research students enrolled in various M.Phil and PhD courses.

One counter-argument which is made against JNU being a top university in the country is that the laurels that JNU gets is because of the research students from science disciplines who work day in and day out, while research students from humanities are only wasting the money of tax payers.

This is just a part of the larger problem where students pursuing science courses are seen as the best, the commerce stream comes second while the humanities is perceived as useless by many. This distinction is felt right from school when a student, after completing the class X, is faced with the option of choosing between various streams.

One of the reasons the JNU faces much ire is because its a largely humanities and social sciences university, with a lot of politically inclined students who always protested against the establishment, right from the early days of the varsity's inception. However, those who ask how can the students of the varsity focus on studies when they spend so much time on protesting should take time to go through the

valuable research done by JNU students from various disciplines, including economics, political science, sociology, history, philosophy and international relations. It is not the mistake of JNU students that those who troll the university and students are unaware of the dozens of articles published by researchers and professors in reputed research journals, every month.

There is no another university or department in the field of social sciences in India, which has produced more quality research than JNU.

For a research student in humanities, their lab work is not restricted to within four walls. Their assessment of research work can be done by meeting with the respective supervisors, twice every month as stated in the attendance circular. For a humanities research student, not marking attendance for classes doesn’t mean that they are on a vacation. For instance, if someone is researching on Indo-US relations post 9/11 while at home, is he/she on vacation or on a leave? The answer is no. Research continues round the clock and it has nothing to do with the attendance at all.

Is there any alternative to JNU as an institution in India? The answer is no. Coming back to the attendance issue, the only question a student is asking what is the point in marking attendance everyday without even having classes and how does it enhance someone’s research in any way possible?

These questions need to be answered. Creating a negative perception about an institution is an easy task but it takes generations to create quality institutions. Today, India doesn’t have many quality public educational institutions. Implementing such unrealistic attendance circulars is just going to suffocate the students.

If the administration really wants attendance to be marked by research students too, then they need to start classes even for the M.Phil and PhD research students. The JNU administration can’t have it both ways—that they won’t even start classes but prescribe the students to sign everyday in order to avail fellowships. That is pure harassment.

To conclude, these are not just ‘practical’ problems but are ‘fundamental’ problems that demands serious answers.

Martand Jha is a junior research fellow at the School of International Studies, JNU.