A month after aspirants on the waitlist of the University of Hyderabad (UoH) raised complaints that the university had closed the admissions to its master’s courses early, the university filled up its vacant seats by inviting candidates from the waitlist.
Deshdeep Dhankhar, an aspirant who was ranked 36 in the unreserved list, had written to the University Grants Commission (UGC) over the issue. He had argued that the university had closed its admissions before other universities released their entrance rank lists.
The UoH Students’ Union highlighted the concerns raised by Deshdeep and said that the issue extended to aspirants for the MPhil and PhD seats as well. The students’ union, in a letter shared with the media, said that 2020 was an unusual year with a health emergency and urged the university to consider filling up vacant seats.
The UGC wrote to UoH later in December asking it to fill its vacant seats.
Speaking to TNM, Deshdeep said, “After the struggle, around 10 students from multiple departments in master’s courses got admission in the University of Hyderabad. For this basic issue of fulfilling vacant seats, it took support from all around, from the UGC to officials from the Education Minister’s team.”
Deshdeep added that he was lucky in his fight because as he was based in New Delhi, it allowed him to approach the UGC. “I feel I could fight this battle for higher education because I was in a privileged place like Delhi where I could approach the UGC and educational institutions physically. Many of my fellow students from smaller towns in India didn’t have any option other than mailing officials and waiting endlessly for a response,” he added.
Deshdeep is now concentrating on catching up with the course work since he has missed over a month of classes in the master’s course.