Accreditation dispute leaves Kashmiri nursing students in limbo
Protest erupts after private Indian university suspends Kashmiri nursing students amid accreditation crisis and looming degree uncertainty
NEW DELHI, India (MNTV) — A dispute over academic accreditation has triggered protests at a private university in western India’s Rajasthan state, after more than 30 final-year nursing students — most of them from Kashmir — were suspended amid an ongoing standoff over degree recognition.
The suspensions took place at Mewar University in Chittorgarh district, a semi-rural region in southern Rajasthan, roughly 300 kilometers southwest of Jaipur, the state capital. Of the 33 Bachelor of Science in Nursing students suspended, 30 are from Indian-administered Kashmir.
The students allege that their nursing program lacks recognition from the Rajasthan Nursing Council and the Indian Nursing Council — the statutory bodies responsible for regulating nursing education and professional registration in India. Without accreditation, graduates would be unable to register with hospitals or apply for clinical positions, effectively invalidating their degrees.
Protests began earlier this week on campus and have remained peaceful, according to local police. Officers have been deployed to maintain order, but no criminal case has been filed. Six General Nursing and Midwifery students were also suspended during the agitation.
Students say they belong to the 2022 academic batch and are scheduled to sit for final examinations in March. They claim the university previously assured a court in 2024 that if recognition was not secured by December of that year, affected students would be transferred to an accredited institution under the same scholarship terms. According to protesters, no such transfer has occurred.
The controversy unfolds against a broader backdrop of scrutiny over private higher education institutions in India, particularly in states like Rajasthan where rapid expansion of private universities has outpaced regulatory enforcement. Accreditation disputes can leave students — often from economically or politically marginalized regions — in prolonged uncertainty.
For students from Kashmir, studying outside their home region is frequently tied to scholarship programs and migration for educational opportunity. Critics of the current situation argue that suspensions during a peaceful protest risk deepening perceptions of institutional vulnerability among minority and out-of-state students.
With final examinations approaching, affected students say delays could jeopardize not only their academic progress but also their ability to enter the healthcare workforce in a country facing periodic shortages of trained nursing staff.
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