UGC likely to ease teaching norms for direct PHD holders

THOSE WITH DIRECT PHDS AFTER BACHELOR’S DEGREES ARE ELIGIBLE FOR JOBS AT IITS, BUT INELIGIBLE TO TEACH AT VARSITIES AS ASSISTANT PROFESSORS WITHOUT MASTER’S DEGREES

NEWDELHI: The University Grants Commission (UGC) is likely to end norms that prevent candidates with direct Phds from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITS) after bachelor’s degrees from teaching at universities, people aware of the possibility said.

Those, with direct Phds after bachelor’s degrees, are eligible for jobs at IITS. But they are ineligible to teach at universities as assistant professors without master’s degrees.

The UGC has received several requests regarding the issue, which was taken up for discussion at its meeting on September 27.

A UGC official said the matter was discussed at length and it was decided to refer the issue to the anomaly committee before taking a final decision.

“The IITS are giving direct admission to BE/BTECH (graduates) in the PHD programme, therefore the candidates who do PHD directly after Btech (which is also provided in the recently launched Prime Ministers Research Fellow scheme) do not possess a masters degree and hence are not eligible for appointment as Assistant professor in Indian universities as per UGC regulations.

This leads to an anomaly whereby a candidate become eligible for appointment as assistant professor in IITS/NITS but is not eligible to apply for appointment as assistant professor in the university system. This constitutes an anomaly,” read the agenda of the commission, a copy of which is with HT.

Another official said the UGC chairman had constituted a committee to address this issue in June.

The committee felt the issue was genuine. After examining the issue and studying the UGC regulations, norms of appointment followed by IITS and the All India Council for Technical Education, it recommended that UGC regulations be amended.

“The committee has suggested that for engineering and technology field apart from making having master’s (including the integrated five-year programme) with first class or equivalent CGPA in the appropriate branch of engineering as the eligibility criteria for appointment, it should also include another option of bachelor’s degree with first class or equivalent CGPA with a PHD degree in the appropriate branch of engineering and technology for the post of assistant professor in universities,” said another official.

IIT Kanpur professor Dheeraj Sanghi said it was an anomaly as PHD is a higher degree. “So if one has attained that why ask for a master’s? I am glad the UGC is looking into it. At the same time, the UGC should not prescribe norms. Rather universities should be free to come up with eligibility and regulations depending on their requirements.”