PAAP Alleges Ph. D Admission Violations in Dravidian University
Tirupati: Parents’ Association of Andhra Pradesh (PAAP) has alleged irregularities in the off-campus Ph. D admissions at Dravidian University in Kuppam. It charged that the university disregarded University Grants Commission (UGC) regulations and state’s guidelines in this regard.
Providing details, the association said Dravidian University has been making off-campus Ph. D admissions for over 14 years without having adequate faculty and resources. It said the university enrolled 8,500 students from 2009 despite UGC banning such programmes.
PAAP’s state president, S. Narahari said such procedural violations prompted the Dravidian University chancellor to appoint Justice B. Seshasayana Reddy as an Inquiring Authority. The authority submitted its report in August 2023. Justice Reddy’s investigation found that former vice chancellors E. Satyanarayana and Tummala Ramakrishna had neglected notification protocols in awarding M. Phil and Ph. D degrees.
Narahari alleged that even under the acting vice chancellor Prof. M. Doraswamy, the university is continuing to issue 2–3 off-campus Ph. D degrees daily, while the number of regular Ph. Ds are minimal.
The PAAP president said they have written to the UGC demanding disclosure of all permissions granted for Ph. D admissions during 2023–24 and 2024–25, apart from a comprehensive review of all off-campus Ph. D programmes at Dravidian University.
“We will decide on our future course of action after receiving details from the UGC,” he stated.
