Recent media reports about the UGC planning to scrap the mandatory requirement of publishing research papers in peer-reviewed journals for submission of PhD is bad news for India’s university system in the same sense as it was for engineering when maths and physics were made optional. Today, the relaxation is for PhD, tomorrow it could mean devaluing research and academic publications in general.
Why is it important for a researcher in a university to have their work published in a respectable journal in the first place? Because when a research project is published in a reputed journal, it benefits both the researcher as well as the institution hosting the journal. It allows researchers, practitioners and institutions with similar interests to interact, which in turn helps in the advancement of human knowledge and its application in the real life world for the benefit of all.
These publications also play an important role in benchmarking quality research. The accredited journals are differentiated on their impact factor, which is a way to rank them. It measures the frequency with which an average article has been cited over a certain period of time and thereby judges the quality and reputation of the researcher. Every article goes through a blind peer-review process, which is a quality control mechanism. They are verified for their correctness and reliability, both in postulations and results. In the process, the academic credentials of the institution hosting the publication are also enhanced. For the faculty, they are used as qualifiers for recruitment, performance assessment, promotion, research fellowship and award. Publishing the research work also ensures their authenticity or that they are not copies of the work done elsewhere.
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The rot runs deep
It is said that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. The Seventh Pay Commission report was released in 2015 with the lofty goal of attracting good faculty by substantially increasing their pay packages and also making PhD mandatory for associate professors and professor-level posts. Since then, there has been a spurt in the award of doctorate degrees across India as several private universities and institutions sensing a business opportunity moved in to fill the vacuum with the express purpose of offering research programmes and PhDs without adequate checks and balances. They enrolled the so-called research scholars, most of whom were their own faculty, by the thousands. Several cases were reported in media, where officials at private universities such as CMJ University in Shillong, Meghalaya, or the Spicer Adventist University in Pune, Maharashtra, either used fake PhD degrees themselves or were found selling them to students. The Vice-Chancellor of Shillong institute and the Chancellor of the Pune institute were arrested.
The UGC Regulations, 2016 mandates PhD scholars to publish at least one research paper in a UGC approved/peer-reviewed journal before their dissertation/thesis is accepted by the university. Of course, it is not easy to publish in quality international or even national journals. To bypass this, several “predatory journals” sprung up that published articles against a payment. Making their way into the list of “approved journals” of UGC did not seem to have posed much of a problem. The underwriters of these “journals” as well as the institutions were only too happy to actively promote the farce, since it provided them all an additional revenue stream. The process now took an art-form with the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) and the accreditation agencies actively seeking the numbers both on PhD registrations and the publications. Such rankings are useful to the universities for getting ever larger numbers in admissions.
Unfortunately, many universities and professional colleges lack the environment that motivates the faculty to do research. Unless the quality of research and knowledge created is of a high order, a paper cannot be published in a top-ranking journal and get cited by others. To write such a paper, faculty members constantly have to update themselves by reading, experiencing, experimenting and innovating, in inter and multi-disciplinary areas and create consultancy linkages with the industry. Research is a philosophy and must be practised like a religion. Enormous funding is required, facilities need to be created and a research ambience has to be provided so that teachers are motivated enough to spend time on social problems and in the laboratories.
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Easier said than done
On the one hand, the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 talks of lofty goals like multidisciplinary, inter- and intra-departmental research in a bid to promote research culture that boosts productisation; in reality, we seem to be undermining the basic tool in research, that is publishing. The time is not to dither but to have belief in oneself. Instead of floating ideas like doing away with the mandatory requirement of publication in journals, what stops the UGC from taking down such paid journals from its list and create an audit mechanism for research outcomes?
As per the UNESCO Institute of Statistics data, there are only 156 researchers per million inhabitants in India and currently we spend only 0.7% of GDP in research and development (R&D). Compare this against Israel, which spends 4.95%, South Korea 4.81%, Germany 3.1%, and even China 2.14%. Only 26 Indian companies as compared with China’s 301 are among the top 2,500 R&D companies in the world. According to Nature Index Rising Stars, 51 of the top 100 Universities with improved research are from China. None from India. Almost all of our R&D spend is by GoI with nothing from the states.
The argument that, in India, research is done in standalone institutions and universities need only be teaching institutes is the most fallacious and dangerous one. Universities without research, knowledge creation and sharing are as good as a dead duck. If we continue diluting our standards in this fashion, the Indian universities will become a retreating image in the world’s Higher Education rear-view mirror sooner than we can imagine.
Ashok Thakur is the former education secretary, Government of India. Dr. SS Mantha is the former chairman of AICTE. Views are personal.
(Edited by Prashant)