Kakatiya University Retired Teachers’ Association (KURTA) has expressed displeasure over the reported agitation by Ph.D aspirants and the harsh treatment they received at the university following the announcement of the Ph.D admission lists recently.
KURTA executive met in Hanamkonda on Friday and resolved to convey the opinions of KURTA members in writing to Kakatiya University Vice-Chancellor Thatikonda Ramesh.
In a joint statement, KURTA president A. Sadanandam and general secretary V. Ravider said, “We have learnt that after Ph.D admission lists were announced, some applicants were agitated, and the administration called for police intervention. Cases were filed against the students and were arrested, and it is also alleged that they were subjected to some harsh treatment.”
KU Vice-Chancellor and the Commissioner of Police addressed a joint press conference on Thursday, which is surprising and could have been avoided by holding discussions within the campus with different academic communities in line with the decades-old democratic and academic practices in the university, they said.
The problem relating to the Ph.D admissions was owing to teaching posts staying vacant, even as teachers retire year after year. It is learnt that the last Ph.D admissions were held in 2017-18. As a result, there emerged a huge gap between the number of available vacancies for Ph.D. seats and the number of aspirants, they noted.
“We express our displeasure over the sad events that could have been avoided by some amicable, democratic and friendly attitude even when the students are unruly,” they said, urging the KU Vice-Chancellor to consider their earlier request to permit senior teachers to take up research supervisorship so that more students can be given admission into Ph.D programmes.
