A backbenchers take on Jadavpur University!

Our institution has a very good economics faculty specialising in research. My research interests were met which made me apply for Jadavpur University. Along with that there was a sense of familiarity with the academic surroundings as I pursued my M.Phil and MA from the same institution.

The course work in PhD is very research oriented: it gives an over all understanding of the subject and introduces tools that can be used to test the research problem in question. The duration of the coursework is 6 months and it involves studying namely 3 subjects: advance microeconomics, advance macroeconomics and research methodology. There will be one internal exam of 20 marks and one final exam of 30. So a total of 50 marks. Where the qualifying percentage is 55%.

PhD scholars don't opt for internships.

I am a PhD scholar and PhD scholars don't really have campus placement in any universities. Although there are campus placement opportunities for masters students. There is a wide variability in packages and job roles from year to year and from department to department.

There are namely two ways to pay the fees one can either pay an upfront of Rs 14000 or pay in two to three installments spanning over a year. The University by itself doesn't provide any sort of scholarship or financial assistance but PhD scholars can either avail the JRF scholarship (if they have already qualified for it) from UGC or if they haven't qualified the above exam they can avail a state scholarship under the Swami Vivekananda Merit cum Scholarship Scheme.

Campus Life is pretty fun. Because of the large size of the campus many fests are organized from time to time along with a host of other events. The arts department, science department and engineering department each has their own fests spanning over 2-3 days each. There are mainly two types of libraries: departmental library and central library. One can also get their hands on research papers through computer rooms (each department has one). But the quality of computers are a bit lagging with out of date hardware and softwares being used. Other than that it's pretty good. Now, coming to clubs there are many choices ranging from dramatics to sports club. Each club organises their own event from time to time over a year.

I faced an interview process where I had to present by research proposal. One can prepare a PPT and present it infront of the interviewers. Questions will be asked from the topic presented. The interviewee has to defend the proposal put forward by him/her. In order to defend a proposal one has to be adequately be versed in the topic being presented. For that, one has to devote a good amount of time in finding out as to why such a research is needed and what can be contributed in research literature through such a topic.