Interview of Mr. Najeeb Jung (VC, Jamia Millia Islamia) on Jamia

Jamia Millia Islamia has around 20,000 students and 700 faculty members. Despite being a central university with some unique and popular courses, the university is often per- ceived as one meant only for the Muslim community.

Its Vice-Chancellor Najeeb Jung spoke about the debate on whether it should be a minority institution, challenges and the road ahead for the varsity.

On March 15, the teachers observed a strike demanding minority status for the varsity.
The issue of converting Jamia into a minority institution has gained centre stage. Don't you think it is detrimental to the institution's image?

The decision lies with the gov- ernment of India. Yes, it does affect the image somewhat but one has to understand the reason behind it. Ninety years ago the nationalist Muslim leaders, the founders of the university, wanted to form an institution of higher learning to educate Muslims. So, the community see it prima facie an institute meant for them.

Is this the reason why the varsity is stereotyped as serving only one community?

It is unfortunate that the var- sity is seen in such a way. We have students coming from all over the country. So, this kind of a branding is not fair.

Why is it that the university is still not the number one choice for students despite having some good courses?

I don't think so if we go by sta- tistics. We receive some 3,000 applications for 30 seats.
Besides, the university also caters to students from economically weaker sections.

The popularity of Jamia's flagship courses in mass communication has waned. What is the reason?


I think this has a lot to do with the competition from other media schools. As far as the faculty is concerned, it is as good as any other, though we do face some challenges in attracting fresh talent.

So, is it lack of resources that prevents you from attracting quality faculty and students?

Yes, we need improved stu- dios for students of media studies, better laboratories for science students. The budget for JNU is five times more than us, whereas we have three times more stu- dents. But in spite of such constraints, we have deliv- ered. One of the students has recently won an internation- al still photography contest while a teacher has bagged the national award for audio- graphy in a film this year.

What is the road ahead?

Besides upgradation of infrastructure, we have introduced the semester system in the post-graduate courses. A series of knowledge lectures with speakers such as Shashi Tharoor and Nandan Nilekani have been also organised. We have discontinued with BA (pass). We will relaunch it with only four subjects. We are also planning to introduce semester system in undergraduate courses.


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