JNU which is in the thick of a controversy over its students being charged for sedition has received 76,000 applications, 3,000 fewer than previous year, for admission in the upcoming academic session for around 2,700 seats in various programmes offered at the university,

While around 79,000 applications were received last year 72,000 candidates had applied in 2014. With the university being caught up in a controversy over an event against hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru during which anti-national slogans were allegedly raised, concerns were triggered among people worldwide about whether the university’s image will suffer a setback because of the ongoing row.

“The number of applications received are 28 times more than the number of seats. This reflects the kind of competition which exists among admission seekers for the university,” Bhupinder Zutshi, Director Admissions said.

Asked about whether the decrease of 3,000 is because of the controversy which hit the university around the same time when the application process was on, the official said, “In the recent years a fluctuation of around 3,000-4,000 applications has been witnessed. The trends of any of the years cannot be attributed to a particular reason”.

According to the data available with the university’s admissions department, 76,091 applications have been received for the 2,700 seats available for undergraduate, Master’s and research programmes at JNU. The month-long application period closed last week and the entrance exams for the courses will be held next month.

Zutshi, however, clarified that the figures are only for the applications received for the JNU common entrance examination. There are two more application categories  Combined entrance programme for Bio-Technology programme and NET-JRF candidates.

Members of the university’s teachers’ association argued that the alleged branding of the university as “anti-national” in wake of the sedition row, is a “superfluous” notion which exists only in a section of society and not among admission seekers.

“The intellectual section of society which is aware of the kind of research and education system JNU stands for, knows that the so-called anti-national theory is a superfluous one and the admission seekers are very much aware of the reality,” a member of JNUTA said.

After the controversy broke out, the varsity’s Centre for Social Studies was ranked at 51st position in the QS World rankings, up by 7 ranks compared to previous year. The university also was winner of the President’s award for excellence in research and innovation. President Pranab Mukherjee had presented the award to the Molecular Parasitology Group of JNU for its pioneering work in the area of molecular parasitology, especially anti-malaria, leishmaniasis and amoebiasis.