Lakshmi Balakrishnan, an Indian PhD student, has alleged that she was “forcibly transferred” to a master’s programme by the University of Oxford without her consent, as reported by the BBC. Hailing from Tamil Nadu, Balakrishnan has two master’s degrees and spent nearly £100,000 (around Rs 1.09 crore) on her education at the prestigious university. She claims her thesis idea was accepted during the application process but was rejected in her fourth year.”They forcibly removed me from the PhD program and moved me to a masters level course without my consent,” Ms Balakrishnan said.”I feel a sense of betrayal and I feel like I have been let down by an institution that I held in high regard.“I already have two masters degrees from India and I paid £100,000 at Oxford to get my PhD, not another masters course”Raised in South India by her father after losing her mother at a young age, she made significant sacrifices to study abroad. “I am the first person in my family to come abroad for studies and I hail from an underprivileged background, I made immense sacrifices to come and study at Oxford,” she said to BBC.In her fourth year, she failed an assessment in which two different assessors claimed her Shakespeare research did not meet PhD-level criteria.Despite disputing the English faculty’s decision and undergoing an appeals process, Balakrishnan was unsuccessful. She believes the university’s strategy is to prolong the appeals and complaints procedures in hopes that she will give up. The university confirmed that the appeals process has concluded.The Queen’s College, where Balakrishnan studied, expressed concern regarding her treatment, noting that no serious issues were raised in her term reports despite her failures. The college questioned the appeal process that led to her transfer to a master’s course and pointed out potential errors in how the rules were applied. Additionally, two professors specialising in Shakespeare stated that her research had potential and warranted a PhD.However, the Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA), an independent body that reviews complaints about higher education institutions, sided with the university’s perspective. The OIA ensures fairness in the academic process and protects student rights. The University of Oxford emphasized that achieving Confirmation of Status requires students to demonstrate significant progress toward completing a doctoral thesis. The university also stated that students have the right to appeal assessment outcomes under established procedures, which aim to ensure fairness and transparency.
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