PhD admission now tough

New Delhi, June 06: The government, which wants to focus on research in universities, has tightened the rules for admission into the Ph.D. The UGC has brought a fresh mandate to the National Eligibility Test (Net Eligibility Test or Net) or State Eligibility Test (Set Eligibility Test).

According to the new sets of draft regulations uploaded by University Grants Commission (UGC) on its website, getting admission to Ph.D. will be difficult.

The draft regulation has suggested that the institutions which come under 'Category III Institution', would enroll candidates who have qualified the NET or SLET or SET examinations for their Ph.D. courses only.

Regarding the amendments, the public and stakeholders can provide feedback until June 15.

National Eligibility Test (NET) is the national level test to determine eligibility for college and university level lectureship and for an award of Junior Research Fellowship for Indian nationals, while States Eligibility Test (SET) is a state level test accredited by UGC for eligibility for Assistant Professors.

According to UGC, a Category I University is 'if it has been accredited by NAAC with a score of 3.5 or above or if it has achieved a ranking in the top 50 institutions of the NIRF ranking in the category of universities for 2 years continuously.'

Category II University is 'if it has been accredited by NAAC with the score between 3.01 and 3.49 or if it has achieved a ranking from 51 to 100 in the NIRF ranking in the category of universities for 2 years continuously.'

Category III University is if it does not come either under the Category I or Category II as mentioned above and the new regulation mandates that only those candidates would be eligible for enrolling in the Ph.D. course into Category-III institutions who have qualified the NET, SET or SLET examinations.