4-Year UG Students With At Least 7.5 CGPA Eligible for PhD: UGC Revises Rules

The changes have been made in line with the principles of the New Education Policy (NEP), 2020.

(Photo Courtesy: UGC)

Undergraduate-degree holders who have a Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of 7.5 or higher will be considered eligible to take admission in PhD programmes, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has reportedly said in its revised guidelines.

The draft UGC (Minimum Standards and Procedure for Award of PhD Degree) Regulations, 2022, was given the go ahead during a meeting of the commission conducted on 10 March, as per The Hindustan Times. The changes have been made in line with the principles of the New Education Policy (NEP), 2020.

The UGC also proposed that 60 percent of PhD seats will be reserved for National Eligibility Test (NET)/ Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) qualified candidates, while the remaining 40 percent will be filled through university entrance exams, The Indian Express reported.

The UGC altered the eligibility criteria after MPhil courses were discontinued, and four-year undergraduate programmes initiated under the NEP.

“The four-year undergraduate programme is beneficial to students in several ways. Those who are interested in research can do either multidisciplinary research or focus on a single discipline in their final year," Jagadesh Kumar, chairman of the UGC, was quoted by HT as saying.

"Those who do well in the four-year undergraduate programme will be eligible to join in a PhD programme. I believe that this will enhance the research ecosystem in our country," he added.

It was also added in the guidelines that students in the four-year UG courses will be required to study common introductory courses in humanities, social sciences etc during their first three semesters, no matter which subject they choose for specialisation.

(With inputs from Hindustan Times and The Indian Express.)