By Aditya Wadhawan
The omission of the mandatory requirement of having a PhD would motivate more students to enter the teaching profession
The University Grants Commission (UGC) has eased the academic pressure on students who intend to get employed as assistant professors at universities by relaxing the eligibility criteria of having a PhD optional.
To provide this relaxation, UGC had to reverse its draft regulations which called for making PhD mandatory for becoming an assistant professor which was scheduled for July 1, 2023.
UGC (Minimum qualifications for appointment of teachers and other academic staff in universities and colleges and other measures for the maintenance of standards in higher education) Regulations, 2018, have been amended and PhD qualification would now be optional for a teaching post.
Prof Manish Ratnakar Joshi, secretary, UGC, tells Education Times, “We have decided to make the PhD an optional requirement as far as appointment of the assistant professor in the universities is concerned. This decision has been taken to do away with the unnecessary pressure that the students face. In order to be eligible for the appointment as an assistant professor in university, students otherwise tend to complete their PhD in haste which results in compromising the quality of research work. From now on, students would only be required to clear the NET/SET/SLET exam for the position of assistant professor.” “This would enable the students to produce a qualitative thesis that would be beneficial to the research domain of the country,” says Joshi.
Pankaj Mittal, secretary general, Association of Indian Universities, says, “Various instances have come to the fore where students are doing PhD in a hurried manner just to become eligible for the post of assistant professor in a university without concentrating on its quality. If the students are given adequate time to conduct meaningful research, it would enhance the quality of PhDs and support the research ecosystem in the country. The decision taken by UGC will also accelerate the process of filling up the vacant teaching positions in universities.”
The omission of the mandatory requirement of having a PhD would motivate more students to enter the teaching profession
The University Grants Commission (UGC) has eased the academic pressure on students who intend to get employed as assistant professors at universities by relaxing the eligibility criteria of having a PhD optional.
To provide this relaxation, UGC had to reverse its draft regulations which called for making PhD mandatory for becoming an assistant professor which was scheduled for July 1, 2023.
UGC (Minimum qualifications for appointment of teachers and other academic staff in universities and colleges and other measures for the maintenance of standards in higher education) Regulations, 2018, have been amended and PhD qualification would now be optional for a teaching post.
Prof Manish Ratnakar Joshi, secretary, UGC, tells Education Times, “We have decided to make the PhD an optional requirement as far as appointment of the assistant professor in the universities is concerned. This decision has been taken to do away with the unnecessary pressure that the students face. In order to be eligible for the appointment as an assistant professor in university, students otherwise tend to complete their PhD in haste which results in compromising the quality of research work. From now on, students would only be required to clear the NET/SET/SLET exam for the position of assistant professor.” “This would enable the students to produce a qualitative thesis that would be beneficial to the research domain of the country,” says Joshi.
Pankaj Mittal, secretary general, Association of Indian Universities, says, “Various instances have come to the fore where students are doing PhD in a hurried manner just to become eligible for the post of assistant professor in a university without concentrating on its quality. If the students are given adequate time to conduct meaningful research, it would enhance the quality of PhDs and support the research ecosystem in the country. The decision taken by UGC will also accelerate the process of filling up the vacant teaching positions in universities.”
