UGC Rule on M.Phil & Ph.D. Admissions Not Retrospective, Clarifies JNU VC
The new rules will come into effect from the next academic session.
Jagadesh Kumar, Vice-Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University, revealed that the gazette notification issued by University Grants Commission on research-based programmes like M.Phil & Ph.D. is not applicable for the current academic session. The new rules will come into effect from the next academic session.
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He further clarified that the students who were already registered for M.Phil & Ph.D. programmes could pursue their research degrees. They will be given three years as the transition period to complete their research programmes. Since few days, teachers and students have been protesting against the gazette notification of UGC which limits the number of guides available to research-based programmes like Ph.D. and M.Phil.
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Students claimed that the notification leads to seat cut in these courses and the students who are pursuing M.Phil at the varsity and are ready to submit their thesis will not get guides to pursue their Ph.Ds.
VC indicated that the notification issued by UGC was not meant to be retrospective and the notification is applicable to the students who join the next academic session. On the other hand, the students who are already a part of the varsity will receive guidance from their former professors. If these students are eligible, they can get into Ph.D. with a transition period of 2-3 years.
He further explained that the students who join the next academic session might not be able to get mentoring from the professors as the professors are already mentoring more research scholars than prescribed by University Grants Commission. He mentioned that many other professors have more vacancies and teachers will be encouraged to take in students and fill the vacancies. Already, the varsity had notified an advertisement for filling 300 teacher vacancies, and it may take a year to fill the vacancies.