Hyderabad: Telangana students today forced cancellation of the counselling for admission to the Ph.D programme in education protesting against the Osmania University accepting applications from 'non-local' students who hail from the Andhra and Rayalseema regions.

 The research programme, offered by the Institute of Advanced Study in Education, has 50 seats while the departments of education received 171 applications. On the opening day 20 candidates were to attend the counselling but local students forced cancellation of the counselling demanding that the seats be allotted only to 'local students from Telangana region' and that 'non-local students (from Rayalseema and Andhra regions) not be allowed to attend counselling.

The counselling for Ph.D (edn), which was to begin on December 27, was delayed due to the introduction of 'eligibility tests' which were later embroiled in a court battle.