BENGALURU: PhD aspirants have alleged that Bangalore University’s notification for admission to doctorate courses violates University Grants Commission (UGC) rules, and have sought justice for qualified candidates. The admission notification for 2019-20 was favourable to some, they said, adding that the notification was issued despite UGC regulations, and constitution of a new PhD regulatory committee which has given its recommendations. The university did not consider the committee’s recommendations, and by doing so, the vice-chancellor has kept eligible PhD aspirants away, they alleged.
They said that as per the 2009 and 2016 PhD regulations of UGC, the SC/ST/OBC candidates were expected to attain 50 per cent marks in postgraduation. The PhD regulatory committee submitted the same, but the vice-chancellor junked these recommendations, and allowed final-year students who are still pursuing postgraduation to apply for PhDs. They also said there is ambiguity in the selection of PhD candidates.
“As per UGC rules, all lecturers can be allotted research students to oversee and guide. However, the university has not considered lecturers with two years for retirement. This has caused a shortage in the number of guides,” a student told TNIE.
The student added that the ratio of teacher to students for professors, assistant professors and associate professors has reduced, which further restricts the number of PhD candidates. The PG and research students’ union wrote to the Karnataka Governor, who is Chancellor of Universities, in this regard on Monday.
Vice-Chancellor, Bangalore University, Prof KR Venugopal, told TNIE that the university’s statute is in line with UGC rules. Students have been seeking relaxation in cutoff marks for admission. This and the issue of teachers (guides) with less than two years’ service being denied to students will be discussed with the deans, guides and students at the university on April 9. On the issue of postgraduate students applying for PhD, as per the university statute, the students should have completed postgraduation at the time of admissions. The rule has not necessitated the same at the time of examination, Venugopal added.
In October 2020, the first round of Ph.D counselling was held and 423 seats were allotted to candidates. The second round of counselling was announced in February 2021, and postponed due to students’ demand. Later, the V-C convened a meeting with deans of all faculty, chairpersons of all departments and legal advisers to look into the demands, and the second round of counselling was rescheduled to March 17, 2021. However, the students have put forth demands, including relaxing cut-off from 50% to 45% PG marks.