The enrolment in PhDs jumped 50% between 2011 and 2017, leading UGC to invite proposals for a six-month study to assess the quality of theses in the past decade.
Hindu College pegged the highest score of 99% for Political Science Honours. It also has the highest cut-off for science courses at 98.3% for Physics Honours.
The UGC's comments follow allegations by the student body that JNU was trying to impose Hindi in undergraduate courses, an accusation the varsity has denied.
UP education minister Dinesh Sharma says only aim behind anti-national clause in proposed Private University Ordinance is to cut down ‘unnecessary activity’ on campuses.
Forget comparing it with classics like Hrithik’s Ek Pal Ka Jeena or the slick title track of Dhoom 2, Janaab-e-Aali does not even come close to Ghungroo.
India’s industrial output growth saw a 10-month low in June, with Index of Industrial Production (IIP) growing by mere 1.5% as against 1.9% in May 2025.
Standing up to America is usually not a personal risk for a leader in India. Any suggestions of foreign pressure unites India behind who they see as leading them in that fight.
You are right in your statement Naimbhai, however in this case a candidate who has both qualified NET and been awarded a PhD degree will be better than the other two candidates as you have mentioned
In my opinion only NET qualified candidates can not guide and teach to Graduation Students and Post Graduation.A Ph.D(In Accordance with Minimum Standards Procedure) and Regulations -9 and Regulations -16 is must which is done by UGC for appointments of Assistant Professor will improve the quality of output in Higher Education i.e students.
A Ph.D always be a better person over NET qualified candidate.
मुझे योग में topic चुनने में मदद करे वर्तमान में किस तरह का शोध समाज के लिए हितकारी रहेगा ।मेरे सामने एक सबसे बड़ा प्रश्न हमेशा आता है कि आखिर में शोध में किया क्या जाता है जब तक मेरे इस प्रश्न का मुझे संतोषजनक जवाब नही मिलता तब तक मे कैसे शोध शुरू कर सकता हूँ उचित मार्गदर्शन दे
PhD for sale in some state
And Mphil. What I come across is the candidates left at night and returned with Mphil. Certificate in the morning . Not only PhD don’t have quality but also now a days
PhD for sale
just they buy ph.D for appointment
One way it is of no use PhD
Because one who want get appointment along with these degree they should keep 30 to 40 lakhs to get appointment
All the appointment and PhD should be centralised for.
The hard workers are not getting job
Now a days the appointment and PhD registration are on the basis of caste based
I would like to say UGC is the main culprit.
Isn’t NTA NET enough?? Aren’t this new selection policy a bullshit where graduation marks are getting more valuations than master’s marks? When you’re telling that PhD is compulsory for application for the post of assistant professor in UG colleges then why the hell are you guys running after the good academic records instead of judging a candidate upon his/ her thesis paperwork only? A person with good memory can easily get handsome marks in his past career but that doesn’t mean that he or she may have a good scientific approach where the syllabuses of the different universities are different. Why UGC is not enforcing credit points for selection on the basis of the national examinations ranks instead of university examinations (graduation or master’s )? Let me tell me you why… Because most of the teachers ( some are in IITs and research institutes too) are brain dead zombies.. They don’t love to hear any new ideas , during the time of interview they are only interested in hearing about why you have gotten bad grades . Is not this process stopping a thousands of good aspirants of PhD from walking further? Your PhD guide would force to choice such a topic where plenties of works have been done before . Because in that way you would be able to make new papers ( I mean plenty of new papers ) , this would help you to get a job. Because in the country of 1.3 billon where no one is interested about solving the problem of unemployment it would be better if you listen to your guide and do the copy paste research. Because here no one is going to give you a funding for doing research further if you’re not a university proffesor nor the people of India is eager to hear about new ideas.
I don’t know whom blame. I don’t know where to complain . But I think the education system should be revised. At least all the recruitments should follow the real excellence..
Ye sab Harami soch hai kewal ak test pass karke 5 years ke research tatha ugc ki Aukat ak Neech mansikta dikhata hai?
Ye sab kewal ak test pass karke 5 years ke research tatha ugc ki Aukat ak Neech mansikta dikhata hai?
Dear KRITIKA SHARMA and SONIYA AGRAWAL,
“In Hindi literature, ‘Hindi sahitya me lote ka mahatva‘ is a PhD topic chosen by many, with some researching the vessel’s importance in poetry, and others in prose.”
Are You serious?
Please give reference. I think, its a joke.
PhD research outcome standards measurement has to be centralised with a common policy by the UGC and we need to remained all PhD guides to improve their guidance standard before they talk about researchers quality work. Ph.D supervisors need to update themselves with global research standards and advanced analysis tools. So they can ensure the quality work from a researcher.
Only focussing on PhD would not help to improve the quality of research in our country. Complete revamp of existing education policies right from graduation level is required. The eligibility criteria of the teaching faculty members & the students alike should be purely on merit basis.Treating PhD like a job is not going to help the cause.
Reservations (govt institutes) & good financial ability of the students(pvt institutes) are the two most diluting factors in the quality of education today in our country. Policy makers have to take some bold moral steps.
We should look at the reasons for falling standards, before commenting on the existing situation. Who made Ph D compulsory for recruitments? Decisions such ad this, and 55 pet cent as the cut off mark, etc have really brought our standards low. This has led to acdemic inflation. The students today demand certain percentage of marks as a matter of right rather than earning it. We, as policy makers are responsible. Let us not blame the system, let us focus on people involved and rectify the situation.
UGC needs to focus on the quality of PhD. Why does it count PhD as just a degree for min. qualification to enter teaching progression. Evaluation of PhD program in India is worsening day by day. This picture is now eye opening by the critical cases of duplicacy or plagiarism. In my view, evaluation of highest degree must be the toughest parameter. It should not be dependent on the bulk of the thesis pages and time spent for getting the degree. Worst rules of UGC has resulted in unemployment to good PhD holders. One can easily judge it by the list of approved journals by UGC. There must be blind review of the research by experts undisclosed to even VC and there should be grading or marks distribution based on novelty, non-obviousness, and induatrial applicability/societal benefits to a PhD awardee. Publication in a high impact journal could be a misleading trend if it is not going to reach the industries or society for betterment of mankind.
It is an expected outcome because UGC formulates rules/regulations but does not have the eyes and ears to know whether the rules are followed by the universities. In fact PhDs are ‘sold like brinjals’ by universities where is the question of quality especially in humanities and social sciences? It is true that people do PhD since it is mandatory for certain posts and hence quality is compromised. The same thing holds good for guides/supervisors also because they have to add this in their CVs. In the end UGC wakes up as if it is not aware of all this and tries to blame the universities which is not right. Actually UGC is the real culprit for this mess.
Private universities have made it a business to enroll students for PhD and making millions out of it. They are not even conducting entrance exam or 6 months course and awarding degrees to morons. UGC should take a bold step to curb this practice than only it’s worth.
For decades now. humanities research has been “curve fitting”: Take data, apply ideology (mostly Marxist), ignore facts that don’t fit, and come up with a hypothesis. There is very little original research or actual data collection. In the west, the people who generate the actual data are the ones who have the most credibility to analyze it. In India, that is not the case. People like Romilla Thapar, Bhanu Pratap Mehta, Shiv Visvanathan, Ashish Nandy, Zoya Hasan, Irfan Habib, just to name a few, are deeply rooted in ideology. Most of their work is interpretive. Their prominence has nothing to do with actual field work. Even the Center for Developing Society that is mentioned in this article suffers from the same problems.
The one and only reason why research in India lack standards is, Ph.D made compulsory for teaching. So that teachers are doing Ph.D in a rush (lacking standards) simply to get a job or to get promotion. But if Ph.D is not made compulsory, then only those people who are truly enthusiastic in research will get do research and get elevated. I have seen most people commenting the similar issue, hope this reaches the MHRD and respond immediately for the good of Indian education system and for betterment of nation.
Hi, I would like to point out the author that there is a major mistake in the graph you presented. Look at the numbers for the year 2017-2018. The total is wrong.
Does the officials who set the rules in UGC know what true research is? Then they would have lobbied for more funding in research. And as someone points out, the upsurge in PhD is not due to students interest, rather the requirement of teaching in universities. As you sow, so you reap!
This news report riminded me of what the well known Marathi writer and playwright, Shri Pu. La. Deshpande said about PhDs in Marati language and literature. He said that these PhD theses are nothing but collection and padting together of extracts of other peoples’ theses. It applies to PhD theses in all the disciplines.
PhD is just one qualification like many others.But here PhD is presumed to be the only qualification for teaching.This is like mono cropping spoiling bio diversity. Smartness of a professor is his ability to connect with the students and encourage them to succeed in life as a responsible citizen.Not some cut copy paste reports evaluated subjectively only.
Ph.D is not related with research.
It is a degree requirement for teaching in higher education institutes. So where does the quality of research comes in? If you mix degree requirement and research, you will get only substandard research in thesis of PhD.
Professors who get these thesis under their guidance are bothered for number of students guided(misguided). Higher is the number, better are the promotion chances.
So, such PhD is beneficial for professor as well as students.
So disappointed to see the singular focus on PhDs and research in Higher education. The purpose is only producing PhDs and Research. It should aim to increase human excellence in all walks of life, not just Research,research and research…All these 70 years put together, how many Nobel prize we got…So focus be redefined to enhance quality of human life.
The truth is UGC notification of 2021 will be maing PhD worse and more plagiarized than before. Don’t expect path breaking research because now PhD will be only be for the sake of qualification. You can scratch UGC NET also which UGC now made useless. And for people lwft with no PhD guide private PhD will only benefit financially to private sector earning more and more from poor researchers. If a person giving 6 to 7 lakhs rupees for PhD in private sector how can u expect he/she will spend lakhs on data collection etc!!
The theses will be of worth and quality if the guides are learned. The selection process of the assistant professors does not testify the candidate in research, instead most of them are recruited based on recommendations of a few powerful people. If this is the case, who will ensure research quality at global level.
You did not mention the single most important reason why people get PhDs : the fact that job markets require it. It is getting increasingly difficult to find employment as faculty without a PhD, and the new UGC regulations going into effect from 2021 will only make matters worse. If you don’t want people going into PhDs without good cause, stop asking for PhDs in every recruiment ever.
Nobody needs a PhD to teach undergrad college classes. The UGC is as much responsible for this trend as are the “scholars”
Sir, I have gone through many Ph. D theses topics on Human Rights Concepts and Practices in India ..legal analysis/Sociological/political/Economical and functional analyses ..etc These are 75 to 85 Percentage copied works and merely 15 to 25 percentage cut and paste works by using different language styles..
In many Laws P h. D theses merely collection and cut and paste works from Earlier theses or Supreme Court Decisions trends used in different language styles. I have seen in all branches of knowledge areas in more than 75 percentage of P h. D degrees holders had not done empirical works or innovative approach or analysis or conclusions .These have been serious alarms in our Higher Educational Systems since 2000-2001 onwards…. Please get settled these cases WEF 2000_2001 onwards and purify our academic systems.
Who asked the UGC to make PhD compulsory for teachers at colleges and universities? Wasn’t the NTA NET enough? The desire to pursue Phd should stem from research acumen and enhancement of knowledge, and never regimental.
And in this Phd-race genuine dissertations will also take a hit further dampening India’s RnD ecosystem.
Wake up UGC!
You are right in your statement Naimbhai, however in this case a candidate who has both qualified NET and been awarded a PhD degree will be better than the other two candidates as you have mentioned
In my opinion only NET qualified candidates can not guide and teach to Graduation Students and Post Graduation.A Ph.D(In Accordance with Minimum Standards Procedure) and Regulations -9 and Regulations -16 is must which is done by UGC for appointments of Assistant Professor will improve the quality of output in Higher Education i.e students.
A Ph.D always be a better person over NET qualified candidate.
मुझे योग में topic चुनने में मदद करे वर्तमान में किस तरह का शोध समाज के लिए हितकारी रहेगा ।मेरे सामने एक सबसे बड़ा प्रश्न हमेशा आता है कि आखिर में शोध में किया क्या जाता है जब तक मेरे इस प्रश्न का मुझे संतोषजनक जवाब नही मिलता तब तक मे कैसे शोध शुरू कर सकता हूँ उचित मार्गदर्शन दे
PhD for sale in some state
And Mphil. What I come across is the candidates left at night and returned with Mphil. Certificate in the morning . Not only PhD don’t have quality but also now a days
PhD for sale
just they buy ph.D for appointment
One way it is of no use PhD
Because one who want get appointment along with these degree they should keep 30 to 40 lakhs to get appointment
All the appointment and PhD should be centralised for.
The hard workers are not getting job
Now a days the appointment and PhD registration are on the basis of caste based
Help me to choose the topic in PhD in education
I would like to say UGC is the main culprit.
Isn’t NTA NET enough?? Aren’t this new selection policy a bullshit where graduation marks are getting more valuations than master’s marks? When you’re telling that PhD is compulsory for application for the post of assistant professor in UG colleges then why the hell are you guys running after the good academic records instead of judging a candidate upon his/ her thesis paperwork only? A person with good memory can easily get handsome marks in his past career but that doesn’t mean that he or she may have a good scientific approach where the syllabuses of the different universities are different. Why UGC is not enforcing credit points for selection on the basis of the national examinations ranks instead of university examinations (graduation or master’s )? Let me tell me you why… Because most of the teachers ( some are in IITs and research institutes too) are brain dead zombies.. They don’t love to hear any new ideas , during the time of interview they are only interested in hearing about why you have gotten bad grades . Is not this process stopping a thousands of good aspirants of PhD from walking further? Your PhD guide would force to choice such a topic where plenties of works have been done before . Because in that way you would be able to make new papers ( I mean plenty of new papers ) , this would help you to get a job. Because in the country of 1.3 billon where no one is interested about solving the problem of unemployment it would be better if you listen to your guide and do the copy paste research. Because here no one is going to give you a funding for doing research further if you’re not a university proffesor nor the people of India is eager to hear about new ideas.
I don’t know whom blame. I don’t know where to complain . But I think the education system should be revised. At least all the recruitments should follow the real excellence..
Ye sab Harami soch hai kewal ak test pass karke 5 years ke research tatha ugc ki Aukat ak Neech mansikta dikhata hai?
Ye sab kewal ak test pass karke 5 years ke research tatha ugc ki Aukat ak Neech mansikta dikhata hai?
Dear KRITIKA SHARMA and SONIYA AGRAWAL,
“In Hindi literature, ‘Hindi sahitya me lote ka mahatva‘ is a PhD topic chosen by many, with some researching the vessel’s importance in poetry, and others in prose.”
Are You serious?
Please give reference. I think, its a joke.
PhD research outcome standards measurement has to be centralised with a common policy by the UGC and we need to remained all PhD guides to improve their guidance standard before they talk about researchers quality work. Ph.D supervisors need to update themselves with global research standards and advanced analysis tools. So they can ensure the quality work from a researcher.
Only focussing on PhD would not help to improve the quality of research in our country. Complete revamp of existing education policies right from graduation level is required. The eligibility criteria of the teaching faculty members & the students alike should be purely on merit basis.Treating PhD like a job is not going to help the cause.
Reservations (govt institutes) & good financial ability of the students(pvt institutes) are the two most diluting factors in the quality of education today in our country. Policy makers have to take some bold moral steps.
PHD was a copy paste for many
We should look at the reasons for falling standards, before commenting on the existing situation. Who made Ph D compulsory for recruitments? Decisions such ad this, and 55 pet cent as the cut off mark, etc have really brought our standards low. This has led to acdemic inflation. The students today demand certain percentage of marks as a matter of right rather than earning it. We, as policy makers are responsible. Let us not blame the system, let us focus on people involved and rectify the situation.
UGC needs to focus on the quality of PhD. Why does it count PhD as just a degree for min. qualification to enter teaching progression. Evaluation of PhD program in India is worsening day by day. This picture is now eye opening by the critical cases of duplicacy or plagiarism. In my view, evaluation of highest degree must be the toughest parameter. It should not be dependent on the bulk of the thesis pages and time spent for getting the degree. Worst rules of UGC has resulted in unemployment to good PhD holders. One can easily judge it by the list of approved journals by UGC. There must be blind review of the research by experts undisclosed to even VC and there should be grading or marks distribution based on novelty, non-obviousness, and induatrial applicability/societal benefits to a PhD awardee. Publication in a high impact journal could be a misleading trend if it is not going to reach the industries or society for betterment of mankind.
It is an expected outcome because UGC formulates rules/regulations but does not have the eyes and ears to know whether the rules are followed by the universities. In fact PhDs are ‘sold like brinjals’ by universities where is the question of quality especially in humanities and social sciences? It is true that people do PhD since it is mandatory for certain posts and hence quality is compromised. The same thing holds good for guides/supervisors also because they have to add this in their CVs. In the end UGC wakes up as if it is not aware of all this and tries to blame the universities which is not right. Actually UGC is the real culprit for this mess.
Private universities have made it a business to enroll students for PhD and making millions out of it. They are not even conducting entrance exam or 6 months course and awarding degrees to morons. UGC should take a bold step to curb this practice than only it’s worth.
For decades now. humanities research has been “curve fitting”: Take data, apply ideology (mostly Marxist), ignore facts that don’t fit, and come up with a hypothesis. There is very little original research or actual data collection. In the west, the people who generate the actual data are the ones who have the most credibility to analyze it. In India, that is not the case. People like Romilla Thapar, Bhanu Pratap Mehta, Shiv Visvanathan, Ashish Nandy, Zoya Hasan, Irfan Habib, just to name a few, are deeply rooted in ideology. Most of their work is interpretive. Their prominence has nothing to do with actual field work. Even the Center for Developing Society that is mentioned in this article suffers from the same problems.
The one and only reason why research in India lack standards is, Ph.D made compulsory for teaching. So that teachers are doing Ph.D in a rush (lacking standards) simply to get a job or to get promotion. But if Ph.D is not made compulsory, then only those people who are truly enthusiastic in research will get do research and get elevated. I have seen most people commenting the similar issue, hope this reaches the MHRD and respond immediately for the good of Indian education system and for betterment of nation.
Possible option is to delink Research activity from Job/Post/Promotion/PhD Degrees.
Because Research is ever ending activity
and is independent of job/post/position
Research is ones hobby as Personal Mental activity.
It is like writing novels.
Any one can write Novels.
Government/Society, should find out a policy to encourage Research by rewarding social recognition…
Hi, I would like to point out the author that there is a major mistake in the graph you presented. Look at the numbers for the year 2017-2018. The total is wrong.
Does the officials who set the rules in UGC know what true research is? Then they would have lobbied for more funding in research. And as someone points out, the upsurge in PhD is not due to students interest, rather the requirement of teaching in universities. As you sow, so you reap!
This news report riminded me of what the well known Marathi writer and playwright, Shri Pu. La. Deshpande said about PhDs in Marati language and literature. He said that these PhD theses are nothing but collection and padting together of extracts of other peoples’ theses. It applies to PhD theses in all the disciplines.
PhD is just one qualification like many others.But here PhD is presumed to be the only qualification for teaching.This is like mono cropping spoiling bio diversity. Smartness of a professor is his ability to connect with the students and encourage them to succeed in life as a responsible citizen.Not some cut copy paste reports evaluated subjectively only.
Ph.D is not related with research.
It is a degree requirement for teaching in higher education institutes. So where does the quality of research comes in? If you mix degree requirement and research, you will get only substandard research in thesis of PhD.
Professors who get these thesis under their guidance are bothered for number of students guided(misguided). Higher is the number, better are the promotion chances.
So, such PhD is beneficial for professor as well as students.
So disappointed to see the singular focus on PhDs and research in Higher education. The purpose is only producing PhDs and Research. It should aim to increase human excellence in all walks of life, not just Research,research and research…All these 70 years put together, how many Nobel prize we got…So focus be redefined to enhance quality of human life.
The truth is UGC notification of 2021 will be maing PhD worse and more plagiarized than before. Don’t expect path breaking research because now PhD will be only be for the sake of qualification. You can scratch UGC NET also which UGC now made useless. And for people lwft with no PhD guide private PhD will only benefit financially to private sector earning more and more from poor researchers. If a person giving 6 to 7 lakhs rupees for PhD in private sector how can u expect he/she will spend lakhs on data collection etc!!
The theses will be of worth and quality if the guides are learned. The selection process of the assistant professors does not testify the candidate in research, instead most of them are recruited based on recommendations of a few powerful people. If this is the case, who will ensure research quality at global level.
You did not mention the single most important reason why people get PhDs : the fact that job markets require it. It is getting increasingly difficult to find employment as faculty without a PhD, and the new UGC regulations going into effect from 2021 will only make matters worse. If you don’t want people going into PhDs without good cause, stop asking for PhDs in every recruiment ever.
Nobody needs a PhD to teach undergrad college classes. The UGC is as much responsible for this trend as are the “scholars”
True
Sir, I have gone through many Ph. D theses topics on Human Rights Concepts and Practices in India ..legal analysis/Sociological/political/Economical and functional analyses ..etc These are 75 to 85 Percentage copied works and merely 15 to 25 percentage cut and paste works by using different language styles..
In many Laws P h. D theses merely collection and cut and paste works from Earlier theses or Supreme Court Decisions trends used in different language styles. I have seen in all branches of knowledge areas in more than 75 percentage of P h. D degrees holders had not done empirical works or innovative approach or analysis or conclusions .These have been serious alarms in our Higher Educational Systems since 2000-2001 onwards…. Please get settled these cases WEF 2000_2001 onwards and purify our academic systems.
Who asked the UGC to make PhD compulsory for teachers at colleges and universities? Wasn’t the NTA NET enough? The desire to pursue Phd should stem from research acumen and enhancement of knowledge, and never regimental.
And in this Phd-race genuine dissertations will also take a hit further dampening India’s RnD ecosystem.
Wake up UGC!
I totally agree with you