UGC (University Grand Commission)comes up with new regulations which enables students to pursue Ph.D. even before completing Masters. These measures are now a part of the Draft University Grants Commission (Minimum Standards and Procedures for Award of Ph.D. Degree) Regulations, 2022 released on 17th of March and comments and feedback from the stakeholders are to be resumed by March 31.
According to UGC, students are eligible to apply for their PH.D. once a student completes their 4 years course of UGC along with undertaken and completed research work during their time in UG. The candidate must also have an aggregated CGPA of 7.5 or above. Not only UG, even students who have completed first year (2 semesters) of Masters are also eligible for Ph.D. Only criteria is the applicant must have a percent above 55 in their first year masters. The ones who have completed Masters and M.Phil. are also eligible for Ph.D in the same way it used to be.
As per the National Education Policy (NEP-2020) a candidate of UG has to complete four years of course. If a candidate wants to discontinue in between these years, he/she will get a diploma Certificate based on their credits and performance in their academics. Draft proposal also added that there is a relaxation percentage of about 5% for Economically weaker class(EWC) and also differently-abled candidates. “A relaxation of 5 percent of marks, from 55 percent to 50 percent, or an equivalent relaxation of grade, may be allowed for those belonging to SC/ST/OBC (non-creamy layer)/Differently-Abled, Economically Weaker Section (EWS) and other categories of candidates as per the decision 3 of the Commission from time to time, or for those who had obtained their master’s degree before 19th September 1991,” as per the draft proposal of the UGC.
Same applies for UG completed Ph.D pursuers. A buffer of 0.5 points is provided to EWC and differently-abled candidates. That is, a CGPA of 7.0 is eligible. Admission as usual is based on the NET(National eligibility test) and JRF( Junior Research Fellowship). About 60% of seats are reserved for NET and JRF, the remaining 40% are through college or institutes entrance tests.
