Univ yet to adopt new Ph.D norms

Delay by the Mumbai University in adopting new guidelines framed by the University Grants Commission (UGC) to register Ph.D students, could cost some PhD students a year.

Delay by the Mumbai University in adopting new guidelines framed by the University Grants Commission (UGC) to register Ph.D students, could cost some PhD students a year.

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Last June, the UGC had framed new guidelines including an entrance test for Ph.D candidates.

But this year, the university has admitted candidates based on the old norms without conducting an entrance test.

The UGC’s 2009 notification states that candidates who have completed their PhD without following the new guidelines will not be recognised.

Acting vice-chancellor Chandra Krishnamurthy said that many of the researchers, who had enrolled in the intervening period, and some others who enrolled before the guidelines were put in place, had done a lot of work on their thesis.

“How do we now conduct an entrance test for them?” Krishnamurthy said she did not have the figure of the number of PhD students who enrolled in the last ten months.

“The guidelines for registering PhD students were finalised in the first week of May this year by the university and submitted it to the acting vice-chancellor,” said a university dean, who requested anonymity.

BCUD director V N Magre said that the university is going to ask UGC how to deal with these cases.

“After UGC draws new guidelines, there is always some time that university bodies are allowed to take to study the norms and adapt them to their local needs,” he said.