Madras University admission issue—a response

University of Madras building.

With regard to the report “ An admission row in the University of Madras ”, published in the Dispatches section on September 6, 2019, the following is a response from Dr M. Venkatachalapathy, Assistant Professor & Head (i/c), Department of Philosophy, Member -Syndicate, University of Madras, Chennai:

I categorically refute all the baseless allegations made by T. Kirubamohan about me in your magazine’s online edition (Dispatches: “An admission row in the University of Madras”).

I never said I was pressured either by the Hon’ble Chancellor or the Vice Chancellor to cancel his enrolment in the M.A. Buddhism course. As the Head of the Department of Philosophy, I gave Kirubamohan provisional admission to I year M.A. Buddhism (2019-20), subject to approval by the university and submission of the required documents by him.

Though almost one month passed by after this, the candidate did not produce the eligibility certificate that should have been submitted by 27.08.2019, along with certificates such as a recommendation letter from the Head of the university department where he had studied.

I forwarded his application to the section concerned for approval of his admission. Following this, I got a letter from the university administration, dated 28.08.2019, stating that “his provisional admission is not approved for not satisfying the following academic conditions”:

1. Candidates who have undergone a postgraduate course at any of the university’s departments will be eligible to apply for another PG course or MPhil programme provided:

(a) The candidate has no arrears in the previous postgraduate programme; (b) The candidate has not violated the “University of Madras Students Conduct Rules”; and (c) The candidate submits a recommendation letter from the Head of the Department where he/she had undergone the postgraduate course.

2. The candidate should have obtained an undergraduate degree from the University of Madras or its equivalent approved by the Syndicate.

Since the candidate did not satisfy the above academic conditions, and on the basis of the letter from the administration, I issued a letter of non-approval of his provisional admission to M.A. Buddhism.

Apart from this reason, I had no other reason to cancel Kirubamohan’s admission to the M.A. Buddhism course.

Again, I categorically and strongly reject Kirubamohan’s statement that I was “under pressure from the Governor’s office and the Vice Chancellor” to not approve the admission, which was the essence of his letter to the Hon’ble Higher Education Secretary, Tamil Nadu. And the Heads of departments do not have any special privilege to relax admission norms, so I did not say that his admission was possible without the submission of proper certificates.

Once again, I reject all the false, baseless and fabricated statements raised by Mr Kirubamohan. I fairly followed the university’s admission norm.