NET must for PhD at Category 3 varsities
TNN | Jun 6, 2017, 06.06 AM IST
CHENNAI: There is a huge incentive for universities to be in Category 1 of the newly graded autonomy regulation, the draft of which was put up by the UGC last week. However, there is a major disincentive for research students who are planning to enrol in universities which are graded in Category 3. They will be allowed to pursue a PhD degree only if they clear the National Eligibility Test (NET), State Level Eligibility Test (SLET) or other State Eligibility Tests (SET).
Universities graded in Category 3 by the UGC have a National Institute Ranking Framework (NIRF) rank of 100+ and a National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) score of less than three. According to a member of the panel which came up with the new regulations, these are institutions which need to pull up their socks as far as quality of higher education is concerned.
Currently the only eligibility criteria for students to enrol for a PhD in Tamil Nadu are a undergraduate and Masters degree with 55% marks in aggregate. PhD is also a pre-requisite for getting teaching jobs in the state along with the eligibility tests. Many students in Tamil Nadu feel that the eligibility tests are difficult and try to get the PhD degree to be eligible for teaching posts.
The catch in the new UGC regulations is that even if a college has an NIRF ranking between 1-100 or has a NAAC accreditation score higher than three, it will still have to follow the new PhD regulations if the University it is affiliated to falls in Category 3.
Sources in the UGC panel which framed the new regulations said this was done with an eye to improve the quality of research and ensure that PhDs are awarded only after proper scrutiny and following best standards. "There have been concerns, especially in Tamil Nadu, over the way in which PhDs were being awarded by the dozen, raising questions about the quality of research," a source said.
In the new regulation, UGC has also mentioned that NET/SLET/SET shall not be required as eligibility criteria for PhDs in such programmes for which the exams are not conducted.
No comments:
Post a Comment