Barring Anna varsity, no other institute has online info on guides, scholars
It’s a violation of UGC norms; compliance on uploading theses to portal also poor
25/08/2019, PON VASANTH B.A,CHENNAI
Barring Anna University, not a single State-run university in Tamil Nadu has made available on its website up-to-date information on research supervisors and scholars enrolled with it.
This is in violation of the University Grants Commission’s (Minimum Standards and Procedures for Award of M.Phil and Ph.D Degrees) regulations, which mandate that such details be made available year-wise, with information on guides, scholars, title of research and date of enrolment. Apart from improving transparency, this is intended to discourage research supervisors from guiding more than the permissible number of scholars.
Regulatory compliance is also poor when it comes to uploading all research theses to the Shodhganga website, managed by INFLIBNET, which helps in detecting plagiarism apart from making the research work openly available.
Of the 19 State-run universities in Tamil Nadu, only Anna University has made available the latest list of approved research scholars and enrolled research guides. Among the remaining 18 universities, 13 did not have details on enrolled scholars, while four had outdated details.
Similarly, details on approved supervisors were not available on the websites of 11 universities, while another six had details with no information on whether they were the latest or outdated.
The University of Madras had incomplete, and possibly outdated details on scholars and guides, with no information on the research topic and date of enrolment.
A senior faculty member of the University of Madras, requesting anonymity, said the non-availability of this information was taken advantage of by many supervisors to guide a greater number of scholars. For instance, the latest UGC regulations allow a Professor to guide eight Ph.D scholars, an Associate Professor to guide six, and an Assistant Professor to guide four. “However, a number of faculty members violate this [norm], since there is no centralised system to track the allocation. Some supervisors guide scholars from different universities, which makes it more difficult to track,” he said.
A Professor at Madurai Kamaraj University said, “Unfortunately, many guides take money from scholars. Therefore, more number of scholars means more money.”
S.P. Thyagarajan, former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Madras, who served in UGC committees that drafted regulations related to research, said enforcement must happen from both sides. “The UGC is taking a multi-faceted approach, including the formulation of regulations, the provision plagiarism-detection software and the creation of the Consortium for Academic and Research Ethics (to identify predatory journals),” he said.
He, however, added that integrity and originality in research will not considerably improve unless individual institutions realised that their credibility was at stake and began implementing these regulations in a stringent manner.
It’s a violation of UGC norms; compliance on uploading theses to portal also poor
25/08/2019, PON VASANTH B.A,CHENNAI
Barring Anna University, not a single State-run university in Tamil Nadu has made available on its website up-to-date information on research supervisors and scholars enrolled with it.
This is in violation of the University Grants Commission’s (Minimum Standards and Procedures for Award of M.Phil and Ph.D Degrees) regulations, which mandate that such details be made available year-wise, with information on guides, scholars, title of research and date of enrolment. Apart from improving transparency, this is intended to discourage research supervisors from guiding more than the permissible number of scholars.
Regulatory compliance is also poor when it comes to uploading all research theses to the Shodhganga website, managed by INFLIBNET, which helps in detecting plagiarism apart from making the research work openly available.
Of the 19 State-run universities in Tamil Nadu, only Anna University has made available the latest list of approved research scholars and enrolled research guides. Among the remaining 18 universities, 13 did not have details on enrolled scholars, while four had outdated details.
Similarly, details on approved supervisors were not available on the websites of 11 universities, while another six had details with no information on whether they were the latest or outdated.
The University of Madras had incomplete, and possibly outdated details on scholars and guides, with no information on the research topic and date of enrolment.
A senior faculty member of the University of Madras, requesting anonymity, said the non-availability of this information was taken advantage of by many supervisors to guide a greater number of scholars. For instance, the latest UGC regulations allow a Professor to guide eight Ph.D scholars, an Associate Professor to guide six, and an Assistant Professor to guide four. “However, a number of faculty members violate this [norm], since there is no centralised system to track the allocation. Some supervisors guide scholars from different universities, which makes it more difficult to track,” he said.
A Professor at Madurai Kamaraj University said, “Unfortunately, many guides take money from scholars. Therefore, more number of scholars means more money.”
S.P. Thyagarajan, former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Madras, who served in UGC committees that drafted regulations related to research, said enforcement must happen from both sides. “The UGC is taking a multi-faceted approach, including the formulation of regulations, the provision plagiarism-detection software and the creation of the Consortium for Academic and Research Ethics (to identify predatory journals),” he said.
He, however, added that integrity and originality in research will not considerably improve unless individual institutions realised that their credibility was at stake and began implementing these regulations in a stringent manner.
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