New Delhi: Last month, the University Grants Commission (UGC) amended rules for PhD admissions, saying that aspirants will not be required to take university entrance exams.
Starting from the academic year 2024-25, PhD students will be given admission based on their National Eligibility Test (NET) scores.
This proposal was approved in a meeting held by the Commission on March 13.
According to Telegraph, this is among the many key decisions the UGC – which has two-thirds of its members’ posts vacant – has taken recently.
According to the UGC Act, the Commission shall consist of a chairman, vice-chairman and 10 other members, to be appointed by the central government. The 10 members include two central government officials.
The Act says that at least four members shall be chosen from among persons who are in-service teachers of universities and the rest shall be chosen from among persons with knowledge or experience in agriculture, commerce, forestry or industry.
However, per the newspaper, at present, the UGC Commission does not have any teachers or experts. It has a chairman, a vice-chairman and two central government officials.
At present, each university holds its own entrance test and viva voce to select candidates for PhD admission. But now, the admissions will be done on the basis on NET scores.
Based on the NET scores, eligible candidates are selected for the posts of assistant professors in colleges and universities.
However, last week, the UGC requested vice-chancellors of all universities to discontinue their entrance tests and consider NET as the single national entrance test. The move, per UGC, is aligned with the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP-2020).
NET scores are also used for granting Junior Research Fellowship, or JRF.
The UGC’s past decisions also faced sharp criticism. For example, when the UGC introduced new draft guidelines for faculty recruitment in universities, they stated that if no qualified candidates were found for reserved seats in the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes categories, those seats would be filled by candidates from the unreserved categories.
This decision sparked sharp criticism from student organisations.
Impact on PhD aspirants from marginalised communities
The latest move to consider only NET scores for PhD admissions will have an impact on marginalised communities.
Pratyay Malakar, an educator and an upcoming PhD scholar from Jamia Millia Islamia, told The Mooknayak, a news website focussed on social justice for the marginalised communities, said, “Institution-level entrances used to make PhD admissions more accessible, which will now be missing.”
“There are operational difficulties attached with NET. It requires a lot of documentation which might not be with the marginalised communities,” he added.
A scholar from Jawaharlal Nehru University, who wished to remain anonymous, told the website that NET exams frequently lack methodological or research-oriented questions, and instead focus on facts or timings rather than analytical thinking.
“As per the global academic standard is concerned, PhD admissions involve Statement of Proposals as well, which engage students with their research fields before the start of the term,” Prabodhan Pal, Assistant Professor at Manipal Centre of Humanities, told the news outlet.
“But the recent policy decision taken by the UGC disregards universal practices as a parameter for admission,” he said.
Many aspirants need coaching to clear NET. “Making NET mandatory will summarily eliminate several aspirants as they cannot access the expensive coaching industry which has now become an essential gateway for NET,” the All-India Democratic Students Organisation said in a statement, per The Hindu.
‘Universities will lose their autonomy over research activities’
“The decision of the UGC undermines the autonomy of universities to facilitate research. The UGC should not ride over universities just because they provide grants. Examinations, admissions, fees, and other matters for any course, including PhD, should be left to the respective universities,” one of the vice-chancellors of a university in Karnataka, who wished to remain anonymous, told The Hindu.
“The Union government is trying to destroy all autonomous institutions by implementing a centralised system for admissions. If NET scores become the criteria for admissions to PhD, universities will lose their autonomy over research activities,” another vice-chancellor told the daily.
