Dr Asangba Tzudir
In a major move in the Indian education System, the University Grants Commission (UGC) by its Chairman Jagadesh Kumar Informed that students with four-year bachelor’s undergraduate degrees can now directly appear for NET and pursue PhD. As such, candidates with four-year undergraduate degrees can now directly pursue PhD and appear for NET (National Eligibility Testing). Such candidates are allowed to appear for tests in a subject in which they want to pursue a PhD irrespective of the discipline in which they have obtained the four-year bachelor’s degree. The candidates will require a minimum of 75 percent marks (with a relaxation of 5% for those belonging to SC, ST, OBC (non-creamy layer), differently-abled, economically weaker sections and other categories of candidates as per the decision of the UGC from time to time,) or equivalent grades in their four-year undergraduate course.
In another functional change, the UGC Chairman also added that, from the upcoming academic session of 2024-2025, the universities across the country will have the opportunity to utilise NET scores for admissions to PhD programmes, replacing the need for separate entrance tests conducted by individual universities and higher education institutions (HEIs). As such, NET has been decided to make it as “one national entrance test” for PhD admissions and taking a step towards ending the entrance examinations conducted by universities for the PhD programmes.
UGC Secretary Manish Joshi said in a public notice sent to all universities and HEIs that the UGC had constituted an expert committee to review the provisions of the NET and based on its recommendations the UGC decided on March 13 this year that the NET score could be used for PhD admissions. He said the NET candidates will be declared eligible in three categories, such as admission to PhD with Junior Research Fellowship (JRF); eligible to be appointed as Assistant Professor, and only for PhD programmes. Prof. Joshi also added that the result of the NET, which is being conducted biannually, will be declared in percentile along with the marks obtained by a candidate to utilise the marks for admission to PhD. Students who qualify for NET and PhD eligibility will get 70% weightage for test scores and 30% weightage for the interview for admission to PhD programmes.
While this is seen as an “important step in streamlining the admissions process and enhancing accessibility for aspiring doctoral candidates, the new initiative is poised to benefit students in numerous ways such as eliminating the need for students to prepare and appear for multiple entrance tests conducted by different universities.
However, the Students Federation of India (SFI) said in a statement that the notice is exclusionary and makes NET mandatory for PhD admissions, adding that “this centralised mandate of making NET a compulsory criteria for PhD across the country in all the institutions, is likely to see the removal of university level entrance tests for PhD, thus negatively affecting the autonomy of institutions as well as the opportunity of students attain eligibility for PhD in more than one way.”
Now, this move of direct PhD after the four years UG programme seems to be in alignment with the One Nation, One Election project where this present move is also to cut down on exams/tests. But, the fact that NET and PhD being brought together under a new format in the name of cutting down on exam may face certain repercussions in the future because the same NET exam based on the score will be applied to three things - admission to PhD with Junior Research Fellowship (JRF); eligible to be appointed as Assistant Professor, and only for PhD programmes.
Further, while it is said that, “students with four-year bachelor’s undergraduate degrees can now directly appear for NET and pursue PhD”, it seems like without clearing NET a candidate for PhD cannot simply start the program unless one clears NET also knows the score. As such, completion of the four year UG degree program does not automatically quality one to do PhD.
Finally, the change opens up for students who have completed a four-year bachelor’s program to enter the research domain without the intermediary step of obtaining a master’s degree. However, there is a big difference between a 4 year bachelor’s degree (though with more core courses taken), and a master’s degree in a particular subject. The development of thought process which is integral to critical thinking is time taking and which is important for doing research and which cannot be undermined. That yes, under the new system, young PhD’s will be ‘manufactured’ but at the end, the research quality output will need to face the litmus test. M.Phil degree which in fact provided a strong foundation to PhD in research methodology and the ways of going research is now scrapped, and now even Masters programme can be bypassed. As such, besides other important considerations, there will be research implication on quality in the pursuit of young PhD’s.
(Dr Asangba Tzudir writes a weekly guest editorial for The Morung Express. Comments can be mailed to asangtz@gmail.com)
