UGC lowers cut-off for PhD

UGC lowers cut-off for PhD

Additional 5% relaxation by UGC to give boost to reserved category students

c-Chandandeep.K@timesgroup.com

The University Grants Commission has introduced some regulations to amend to UGC (Minimum Standards and Procedure for Awards of MPhil/PhD Degree) Regulations 2016. The new regulation stated that a relaxation of 5% marks (from 50% to 45%) will be given to candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes/ differently-abled category in entrance examination conducted by the universities.

Talking to Education Times , HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar said, “The UGC move came in after my proposal and it was done to increase the representation of reserved categories in the field of research.”

According to All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) 2017-18, only 1,61,412 students are enrolled in PhD that is less than 0.5% of the total student enrolment.

Of the total 1,61, 412 students, Scheduled Caste students constitute 14.4%, 5.2% belong to Scheduled Tribes and 35% students belong to Other Backward Classes.

Jyoti Atwal, associate professor, School of Social Sciences, JNU, said, “The decision to lower the cut-off is a welcome move but the restriction by UGC to enrol only 194 students should also be done away with to increase enrolment in research. Our university being a central university is affordable for students belonging to reserved categories, but at present we have more teachers than students because of the restrictions.”

Dhananjai Yadav, head of Education Department, University of Allahabad, was of the opinion that SC, ST students pursuing higher education are mostly firstgeneration learners and lack family support and motivation. “So, by lowering the cut-off, the UGC is motivating students belonging to these categories to pursue research. Furthermore, with change in rules for appointment of professors or assistant professors in universities, it will prove beneficial to give representation to SC, ST or OBC categories in higher education workforce.”

Source:http://digital.olivesoftware.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIM/2018/09/03&entity=Ar01710&sk=2EDC2451