Jamia scraps only exam centre in south India, adds two in north, central India

In an extremely questionable move, Jamia Millia Islamia University (JMI) has removed Thiruvananthapuram from its list of entrance test centres. The city, moreover, was the only such centre in south India. Instead, the university has added two test centres in north and central India.

Last year, entrance test centres included Delhi, Lucknow, Guwahati, Patna, Kolkata, Srinagar, and Thiruvananthapuram. This year, test centres are in Delhi, Lucknow, Guwahati, Patna, Kolkata, Srinagar, Malegaon, and Bhopal, with the last two making their debuts as test centres.

According to JMI chief media coordinator Professor Quamrul Hassan, the university has a prospectus committee that decides the centres. “The prospectus committee would have gone through the nitty-gritties of allocating centres in different parts of the country and then decided,” he said.

When it was pointed out that there are no other centres in south India, Prof Hassan stated that he would check the details.

JMI began conducting entrance exams for undergraduate and postgraduate courses in multiple centres from 2015 onward under vice-chancellor Talat Ahmad. Until 2014, entrance exams for UG and PG courses, except BTech. and Diploma Engineering (Regular) programmes, were held only in Delhi. For engineering courses, the centres were Delhi and Guwahati.

In 2015, JMI entrance exams for UG and PG courses were held in 12 test centres: Gujarat’s Ahmedabad, Karnataka’s Bengaluru, Kerala’s Calicut (Kozhikode), Delhi, Assam’s Guwahati, Telangana’s Hyderabad, West Bengal’s Kolkata, Uttar Pradesh’s Lucknow, Maharashtra's Mumbai, Bihar's Patna, Jharkhand’s Ranchi, and Jammu-Kashmir's Srinagar.

In 2016, the number of exam centres was reduced to seven, but there was always a centre in Calicut, alongside Lucknow, Delhi, Patna, Guwahati, Srinagar, and Kolkata.

From 2017-20, Calicut was one of the examination test centres, along with the others. Then too, Malegaon and Bhopal weren’t on the list. The centre in Kerala changed to the capital Thiruvananthapuram in 2021, making it difficult for students in neighbouring states to attend. This year, the centre was dropped altogether.

The prospectus mentions that if the number of applicants for a course is either 49 or less, the test will be held in Delhi. But according to university sources, last year alone, 350 students appeared for the undergraduate Psychology exam in Kerala, and for other subjects, close to 200 students attended.

Removing the Kerala centre has made it difficult for underprivileged students to even book tickets. “There are no train tickets available for Delhi now. Train tickets can only be booked 60 days in advance. Students coming to Delhi from Kerala to write the exam need to come with a guardian, find a place to stay, and then travel to the JMI centre on campus. This makes it extremely difficult for us. We have to book flight tickets, which are extremely expensive,” lamented a parent who did not wish to be identified.

In 2023, JMI courted controversy when the university removed Srinagar as a centre. JMI then claimed that the Srinagar centre was not removed for all courses but had to be cancelled for some programmes as the number of applicants was fewer than 50. However, several students alleged that they were getting Delhi as the only option when filling out application forms online for admission to most undergraduate, postgraduate, and PhD programmes.