Indian student at Oxford University takes legal action against varsity

Study in UK: An Indian student from Tamil Nadu has accused the University of Oxford of harassment and racial bias. She has taken legal action against the varsity.

Lakshmi Balakrishnan, an Indian student at the UK's prestigious Oxford University has accused the university of injustice, harassment and racial bias. She hails from Madurai in Tamil Nadu.

Lakshmi Balakrishnan said that she has started legal action against the university as despite multiple appeals and complaints in the university, she has not got justice. She was enrolled in PhD on Shakespeare from October 2018.

She said, "In November 2021 during an internal assessment process known as confirmation of status in the fourth year of my studies my assessors at Oxford failed me by reasoning in the assessment report that Shakespeare does not have the scope for doctoral level studies," as reported by Economic Times.

She alleges breach of contract

She said that it is a clear case of breach of contract.

"It is actually a breach of contract because when I applied to Oxford I clearly mentioned in my application that my PhD thesis is going to be on Shakespeare. The scope of my PhD thesis has continued to remain the same since the time of my application to Oxford and therefore I believe that this constitutes a fundamental breach of contract when the university failed my PhD exam," she said.

She added that she invested more than 100,000 pounds, that too by making immense sacrifices.

"After spending such an enormous sum of money which is 100,000 pounds the least they could do is to allow me to submit my PhD thesis and undertake my final viva, that is all that I am expecting," she said.

"The university's actions have disadvantaged me financially and affected my job prospects," she added.

I want justice, says Lakshmi Balakrishnan

She said, she "assiduously followed all the appeals and complaints process and shown respect to these procedures but felt let down by these procedures."

"Since December 2021, I have filed several appeals and complaints in various stages both within the university as well as in the Office of the Independent Adjudicator of my PhD problem," Balakrishnan added.

"I want justice for my PhD confirmation issue," she further added.

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