UGC Eases Eligibility Requirements for Assistant Professors: What You Need to Know

UGC Eases Eligibility Requirements for Assistant Professors: The elimination of the PhD requirement would encourage more students to pursue the teaching profession.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has made the PhD optional as an eligibility criterion for students seeking employment as assistant professors at universities, thereby reducing their academic burden.
To provide this relaxation, the UGC had to rescind its proposed regulations mandating that a PhD be required to become an assistant professor on July 1, 2023.

UGC Eases Eligibility Requirements for Assistant Professors: What You Need to Know

The 2018 UGC (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 have been amended to make a PhD optional for a teaching position.

Prof. Manish Ratnakar Joshi, secretary of the University Grants Commission (UGC), tells Education Times, “We have resolved to make a PhD optional for the appointment of assistant professors in universities. This decision has been made to relieve the students of any unnecessary pressure.

In order to qualify for a position as an assistant professor at a university, students tend to complete their PhDs in a rush, which compromises the quality of their research. For the position of assistant professor, candidates would only be required to pass the NET/SET/SLET examination.” “This would enable students to produce high-quality theses that would benefit the country’s research community,” says Joshi.

Pankaj Mittal, secretary general of the Association of Indian Universities, states, “Many instances have surfaced of students rushing through their PhDs in order to qualify for the position of assistant professor in a university, without focusing on the quality of their work. If students were provided sufficient time to conduct meaningful research, it would improve the quality of PhDs and contribute to the nation’s research ecosystem. The decision made by UGC will also expedite the process of filling vacant university teaching positions.”

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