Entrance test for PhD at Bangalore University may be a reality

Here on, Bangalore University’s (BU) PhD course will see a major makeover. The draft ordinance framed by a committee, headed by one of the Bangalore University professors K Puttaraju, has been approved by the academic council meeting held on Wednesday.

As per the draft ordinance, those who are interested in a PhD degree from the Bangalore University need to take an entrance test for registration. The university will prepare a merit list of candidates based on the marks secured in the test.

The candidates those who have already cleared the National Eligibility Test (NET) will however not be required to take the PhD entrance test and can register directly.

Meanwhile, the number of students one guide can mentor at a time has been restricted to six, including candidates who are under funded projects. In the existing system, there was no restriction and any number of students could register with a single guide.

“We are bringing in these changes mainly to increase the quality of PhD papers. The standard requires a monumental jump,” said N Prabhu Dev vice-chancellor Bangalore University.

The candidates who register for PhD should take up the course within a year. “The period of course work is one year (two semesters) consisting of six papers with a provision for continuous assessment,” said Dev.

Other reforms
Part-time candidates need to work for at least 90 days per year in the department of research guide.

The guide should supervise the candidate under him/her properly by maintaining proven periodic record of the candidate, failing which he/she will be subjected to disciplinary actions as per service rules.

The word ‘guide’ is replaced by ‘supervisor’.

Any candidate found guilty of plagiarism or any kind of malpractice in PhD thesis work will be liable for punishments and penalty imposed by the university in addition to withdrawal of registration.

The allotment of guides should be done through a process wherein the chairperson of the PG department convenes a meeting of the department council and allots candidates as per the merit list.

fellowship for poor
The candidates who belong to BPL families and register for PhD programmes in BU will get a monthly fellowship of Rs5,000 for three years. The estimated period for the completion of the course is three years, so the university has restricted the fellowship amount for that period. The candidates already enjoying other scholarships will not be eligible for university’s fellowship.