JNU has dominated headlines over the past month thanks to the slapping of sedition charges against some of its students. But that hasn't had a significant impact on the students aspiring to study in the university. According to the latest data, JNU has received over 76,000 applications for admission to the upcoming academic session against a vacancy of 2700 seats in different streams and courses of the varsity. While many had said the university was less attractive for aspiring students after the recent controversy, the officials at the institute are of the opinion that the lower number of application forms is "marginal" and does not reflect a "feeling of hostility" among the youth of country. Last year, the university had received around 79,000 applications. This was 7000 more than the applications received in 2014.

Talking to ScoopWhoop, Director of Admissions Bhupinder Zutshi said "It's not clear yet which stream or course has witnessed a dip since the forms haven't been classified according to respective streams."

Asked about whether the decrease of 3000 could be blamed on the controversy which hit the university around the same time when the application process was on, Zutshi said, "In recent years a fluctuation of around 3000-4000 applications has been witnessed off and on. The trends of any of the years cannot be attributed to a particular reason."

The number of applications, which had had to be submitted by last week, have been solely received for the JNU common entrance examination which will be held next month.

According to Zutshi, they are waiting for the breakdown of data of application forms to understand and analyse the trend this year.

In 2012, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) was given the highest grade award of 3.9 out of 4 by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), the highest score awarded to an educational institution in India.

Recently, the university had once again brought laurels for India when the varsity's Centre for Social Studies was ranked at 51st position in the QS World rankings, showing a jump of 7 ranks as compared to previous year.