BENGALURU: The decision to scrap the requirement for PhD candidates to publish research papers by the University Grants Commission (UGC) came under fire with many on social media saying that it will lower the standards of pursuing PhD.
“This is another step to destroy the quality of higher education in India. In a few years, India will have the highest number of doctors, but nowhere to employ them,” the Earth, Climate and research Foundation stated.
Speaking to TNIE, Dr Jayant Murthy, a retired senior professor at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, said, “Working on a PhD implies that you are working on something new. Publishing it in a peer-reviewed journal gives it a stamp of approval in the scientific community.” The requirement was removed as researchers were ostensibly paying to publish their research in fake journals.
“While the other regulations seem to be in good faith, this has been done without addressing the failure in ethics. The issue with fake journals occured due to a change in UGC guidelines a decade ago, making publishing research in journals a requirement to become a professor, resulting in journals cropping up for pay-to-publish,” Dr Murthy said.