PhD not necessary to teach in varsities: The new UGC guidelines explained

A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree is no longer mandatory to apply for the post of assistant professor at higher education institutions. The University Grants Commission (UGC) has taken back its 2018 regulation that had made PhD a must for the appointment of teachers in colleges and universities.Speaking to news agency PTI, UGC chairman Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar said, "PhD qualification for appointment as an assistant professor would continue to be optional. The National Eligibility Test (NET), State Eligibility Test (SET) and State Level Eligibility Test (SLET) shall be the minimum criteria for the direct recruitment to the post of assistant professor for all higher education institutions".What happened in 2018 and why has the UGC reversed its decision now? Let’s take a closer look.Tracing the beginningIn June 2018, the education ministry (known as human resource development ministry at the time) made PhD compulsory for hiring assistant professors at higher education institutions from 2021.In a notification released in July 2018, the UGC said, “The PhD degree shall be a mandatory qualification for direct recruitment to the post of Assistant Professor in Universities with effect from 01.07.2021.”The move was opposed by staff from different universities who argued that several candidates could not complete their PhDs amid the COVID-19 pandemic and urged the Centre to relax the criteria.[caption id="attachment_12840832" align="alignnone" width="640"]

The move to make PhD a compulsory requirement to hire candidates for assistant professor posts was criticised. Pixabay (Representational OImahe)[/caption]In October 2021, the UGC deferred the July 2021 deadline for making PhD mandatory to July 2023 in view of the pandemic.Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan had said at the time, "We believe that a PhD is not required to become an assistant professor. This condition cannot be kept if good talent is to be drawn to teaching. Yes, it is required at the level of associate professors and professors. But a PhD for an assistant professor is perhaps not favourable in our system and that's why we have rectified it”.What is the UGC saying now?Even before the mandatory PhD criteria could be implemented, the UGC completely scrapped it.A notification in this regard by the UGC dated 30 June said that the University Grants Commission (Minimum Qualifications for Appointment of Teachers and Other Academic Staff in Universities and Colleges and other Measures for the Maintenance of Standards in Higher Education) Regulations, 2018, have been amended.A PhD degree is optional for applying to assistant professor posts in colleges and universities. Candidates who have cleared NET, SET or SLET will be eligible for appointment.These new regulations came into effect on 1 July 2023. UGC chairman Kumar said that “depending on the number of applications in higher education institutions received in a given discipline, the shortlisting criteria can be fixed above the minimum standards set by UGC to invite a manageable number of candidates for the interview,” reported Hindustan Times (HT).Explaining the reason behind the new regulations, Kumar told The Indian Express, “In certain disciplines such as policy-making, design, foreign languages, law, architecture and other similar subjects, universities often find it difficult to get candidates with a PhD. Removal of mandatory PhD conditions at the entry-level will help universities in recruiting candidates with a flair for teaching but without a PhD. They, of course, need to complete their PhD to move to the next level [of associate professor].”He added that the changes would not affect the quality of education.

On Thursday (6 July), Kumar issued a clarification and said PhD holders do not need to clear NET, SET, or SLET to apply for assistant professor posts.

“For those with a Master’s degree, UGC-NET/SLET/SET is the minimum requirement for the direct recruitment as an Assistant Professor, and 2) Ph.D. degree holders, awarded as per UGC Regulations, are eligible for direct recruitment to the post of Assistant Professor and are exempted from UGC-NET/SLET/SET. Depending on the number of applications received in a given discipline, HEIs (higher education institutions) can use suitable criteria given in the regulations for appointment at the Assistant Professor level.”Moreover, a PhD degree will still be required for promotion to the post of associate professor. “Therefore, even if someone joins as an assistant professor without a PhD, the faculty member, while teaching in the HEI, has to do good quality research and obtain a PhD to be eligible for promotion to the next level leading to improved research outcomes in HEIs,” he said, as per HT.New regulation gets mixed reactionAbha Dev Habib, an associate professor at Delhi University (DU), welcomed the move. “The DU Teachers Association has always opposed the requirement of PhD for assistant professors in universities. Such a requirement affects the entry of candidates from marginalised sections since most of them do not have the resources and support to pursue PhD,” she was quoted as saying by The Telegraph.Habib claimed that the mandatory PhD requirement was “prompting candidates to pursue research courses without rigour”, thus hurting their quality of research.However, some have expressed dismay at the decision.Speaking to Indian Express, Ajeya Vajpayee, PhD candidate at DU's Department of History, claimed the move will bring down the "quality" of assistant professors."It will definitely tone down the quality of assistant professors because we go through a rigorous learning process during the 5-6 years of the PhD programme. With MPhil scrapped, which prepares the students in a big way for the colossal work that they take up during their doctoral research, there’s definitely a downside to it," she argued.Rishabh Pandey, PhD candidate in Psychology, IIT Kanpur told Indian Express, It is disheartening for those who spent five to seven years of their lives pursuing a PhD degree, to get the job of an assistant professor, and now it’s not even a compulsion.”With inputs from agencies