No ‘outsourcing’ of PhD, UGC tells VCs

Sunit Dhawan

Tribune News Service

Rohtak, July 7

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has directed the Vice Chancellors of all universities across the country to ensure that the research supervisors for guiding MPhil/PhD students are allocated from amongst the regular faculty members at the university teaching department or its affiliated PG colleges/institutes.

“It has come to the notice of the UGC that some universities are hiring the services of the supervisors who do not happen to be regular teachers of those universities or their affiliated PG colleges/institutes for awarding MPhil/PhD degrees. This practice is in violation of the UGC (minimum standards and procedure for awarding MPhil/PhD) Regulations, 2009,” maintains a UGC communiqué.

The communiqué, shot off on July 6 by Dr Jaspal S Sandhu, UGC Secretary, clarifies that any PhD/MPhil degree awarded by a university under the supervision of a supervisor who is not a faculty member of the university or its affiliated PG colleges/institutes would be in violation of the UGC Regulations. It warns the Vice Chancellors/officials concerned that any violation of the regulations would be dealt with seriously.

The step comes after a representation on the “outsourcing of PhDs” submitted to the UGC authorities by Prof SPS Dahiya, head of the department of English and foreign languages at MDU here. “I am grateful to the UGC authorities for issuing the clarification in the larger academic interest,” said Prof Dahiya, who had also moved the Supreme Court regarding the matter.

Dr Raj Kumar, president of the Haryana Federation of University and College Teachers Organisations (HFUCTO), has also welcomed the UGC move.

Dr Raj Kumar had also submitted a representation to the UGC authorities in this regard in 2013, pointing out how many private universities across the country were flouting the UGC regulations by allowing a researcher to work for his PhD at any university/institute across the country under the guidance of teachers of other universities. In certain cases, the research supervisors were from outside the country.