UGC Study to Review PhDs Granted By Universities in Last 10 Years

UGC is planning to complete the review of PhDs granted in the last ten decades over the next six months.

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The University Grants Commission (UGC) has decided to run a study to analyse the quality of the PhD theses submitted and produced by universities across India in the past ten years.

The apex regulatory body for higher education in the country is planning to complete the study in six months, The New Indian Express reported.

As part of the study, the UGC will review PhD theses in different disciplines at various central, state, state-private and deemed-to-be universities.

“The study would have to be pan-India and may give findings at national as well as state level with regard to the quality of PhD theses, indicating the quality aspects proposed by the interested parties,” UGC Secretary Rajnish Jain said, in a recent public notice.

The UGC, the report added, has invited interested parties to send their proposals for conducting the study latest by 10 June.

“Today, PhD has become a business and there are several people (teachers) producing PhDs by registering themselves as guides in different universities. Due to this, there is a question mark on the quality of PhDs.”

K Pandian, former president, Association of University Teachers, to The New Indian Express

“When there is a National Eligibility Test and a State Eligibility Test for assistant professorship, why should we give exemption to PhD? How many PhDs are relevant to society,” he added. “When PhD is made compulsory for teaching, the quality gets affected.”

In January, the UGC had constituted a high-level committee headed by Indian Institute of Science’s (Bengaluru) former director P Balram to review the MPhil and PhD regulations.

(With inputs from The New Indian Express)