If India’s higher education authority University Grants Commission(UGC) approves suggestions from a committee of scholars, PhD students not required to submit journals in scholarly publications before they are granted their doctorates.
Currently, before submitting their doctoral thesis for review, PhD students must deliver two papers at conferences or seminars, publish at least one article in a peer-reviewed journal, and meet other requirements set forth by the University Grants Commission (UGC). In contrast to many other nations, India has a national publication policy for PhD students, while in many others, institutions determine their own standards.
However, the UGC constituted a committee of academics from the humanities and sciences to look into this criterion and others last year. According to Padmanabhan Balaram, the committee’s chair and a biochemist at the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru, the publishing requirement is thought to be a factor in the growth of low-quality journals that offer to publish papers quickly for a fee without offering services like editing and peer review.
According to Balaram, the committee has advised the UGC to amend its policy and mandate that universities evaluate PhD students by having an exam halfway through a PhD programme and requiring candidates to defend their thesis in an oral test. He claims that the UGC has not yet accepted the committee’s recommendations. In June, the UGC is anticipated to respond.
No Journal Publication Required to Complete PhD
The UGC (Minimum Standards and Procedures for Award of Ph.D. Degree) Regulations, 2016, are currently being amended by the commission. Prior to submitting their dissertation or thesis for review, PhD researchers were required by the 2016 regulations to publish at least one research paper in a UGC recognised or peer reviewed journal.
The phrase “required” will be changed by the commission to “highly recommended” in the revised 2022 regulations. The universities will be in charge of evaluating the quality of doctoral degrees, and they are allowed to develop their own standards in this regard.
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