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UGC unveils new portal for top doctoral works’ recognition
The PhD excellence citation initiative is aimed at recognising exceptional doctoral research across disciplines to create a quality research ecosystem and identifying high-quality work of young scholars.
The University Grants Commission (UGC) on Wednesday launched a portal, PhD Excellence Citation, where each university can nominate up to five doctoral theses, one each from five disciplines — sciences, engineering and technology, social sciences, Indian languages, and commerce and management — for recognition by the higher education body.
“From today, universities can nominate some of their best PhD theses for this recognition on UGC portal,” UGC chairperson Jagadesh Kumar said, while launching the portal. “We have already written to all the universities about this programme, and we request them to identify the best thesis in your university and nominate them on the UGC portal.”
The PhD excellence citation initiative is aimed at recognising exceptional doctoral research across disciplines to create a quality research ecosystem and identifying high-quality work of young scholars. All universities recognised by UGC and National Assessment and Accreditation Council are eligible to participate in the initiative, according to the guidelines for the programme.
“…to recognise the efforts made by our research scholars as part of their PhD programmes, UGC has decided to recognise their efforts every year and we have categorised these disciplines into broad categories and in each of those categories, universities can nominate the PhD scholars on the UGC portal,” Kumar added.
PhD degrees awarded to researchers from January 1, 2024 to December 31, 2024 can be nominated by the universities on the UGC portal by March 31 this year. UGC will constitute five selection committees, with each selecting two candidates from their respective streams after evaluating the nominated theses based on originality, publication quality, patents (if any), proper representation through citations, and their potential to contribute to new knowledge in the respective domains, the guidelines said.
“So based on these broad parameters, the expert committee will choose two theses in each of these broader domains that we have identified and then we will invite these scholars and present these PhD excellence awards to them. We hope that with this recognition many of our young PhD scholars will be inspired and motivated to do outstanding work as part of their PhD programme,” Kumar said.
The commission will award 10 PhD excellence citations, two from each discipline.
The selection committee for the citations will recommend winners to the UGC by August 1 and the citations would be awarded on September 5 to mark the Teachers’ Day, the guidelines stated.
