From Jhola To Briefcase?

The introduction of engineering and management to JNU has been controversial. Their launch was hasty, interest in engineering is waning, and they can alter the campus culture shaped by students and staff over decades.

- Pritha Roy Choudhury

In 2018, Alok gave up a seat in Indian Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University (IIT-BHU), to join the five-year dual-degree M.Tech programme launched by Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) that year.

He had rationalised his decision thus: “I took admission here based only on the name of the university. I thought since all the other courses are good, this will also be good.” With its established record of excellence in other disciplines, he figured JNU would do well with the fledgling programme.

A year later, his faith is shaken. “First, we didn’t have a laboratory for the first few months. Then the lab classes began but there were no books (in the library). Now, they have started with some books but they are not sufficient,” he said.

This year, the university launched a two-year management programme. The Atal Bihari Vajpayee School of Management and Entrepreneurship inducted its first batch of 42 in July. The engineering programme under School of Engineering has 226 students in its first two batches.

Engineering has no faculty of its own, making do with teachers from other departments or institutions. Consequently, the engineering students don’t have a timetable. “The teachers come as and when they are free,” said one, requesting not to be named. “Many times, classes are scheduled and confirmed over the phone.”

A puzzling decision

In December 2017, the proposal to introduce engineering and management showed up in the agenda for JNU’s Academic Council meeting and was passed. Earlier that year, the JNU Vice-Chancellor, M. Jagadesh Kumar, had told a major English daily he would introduce these two.