THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Those who got high rank at the entrance exam for Ph.D. in Sanskrit University found themselves left behind in the rank list after the interview.

There were nine vacancies for research in Malayalam department. A former Congress MLA’s wife secured 8th rank in the entrance exam. But after the interview, she was placed 17th rank. The third rank holder got pulled down to 9th rank, the fourth rank went way down to 36th rank and the 7th rank holder got 33rd rank after the interview.

At the same time the 5th rank holder got the 1st rank, the 19th rank holder got fourth rank and 14th rank holder got 6th rank. As the rank list seems to be overturned, the Save University Campaign Committee have given a petition to the Governor.

Those who passed the entrance exam for 100 marks were called for interview. The final rank list was prepared by a seven-member interview committee including Malayalam department head Lizy Mathew and Dr. Sunil P Elayadom. According to UGC guidelines, the final rank list is prepared by adding the 30% of the total marks secured in interview to the 70% of the marks received in the entrance exam.

However, the interview board avoided the marks in entrance exam completely in preparing the rank list which has led to those securing high rank in entrance exam completely left out.

The VC had given permission to publish the rank list in violation of the UGC rules after freezing the Academic Council’s decision to include the entrance exam marks too. Those who are selected will receive monthly scholarships.