Allegations crop up over PhD recommendation for Sanskrit research scholar

The doctoral defence of a research scholar in Kerala University’s Sanskrit Department waded into controversy after the Head of the Department wrote to the Vice Chancellor against awarding doctorate.

In her formal communication to Vice Chancellor in-charge Mohanan Kunnummal, C.N. Vijayakumari, Dean of Faculty of Oriental Studies and Head of the Sanskrit Department, has raised serious procedural concerns regarding the conduct of the PhD open defence held on October 15.

The representation states that the thesis ‘Sadgurusaraswam – A study’ was allowed to proceed in a manner that allegedly bypassed mandatory scrutiny at the faculty level. During the open defence, the candidate purportedly failed to answer factual questions related to his thesis neither in Sanskrit, English nor Malayalam. Despite such shortcomings, the scholar’s dissertation was reportedly accepted and recommended for the PhD degree.

The thesis was written in English and the complaint claims that the student was unable to respond even to basic questions posed by faculty members during the open defence. She expressed concern that awarding a doctorate for a “substandard dissertation” would tarnish the reputation of the university, which recently secured a top position in the recent NIRF rankings.