NEW DELHI: In a move to instil reforms in selection process and awarding the fellowship to the PhD candidate the All India Institute of Medical Sciences has proposed to provide institutional fellowship to such scholars.
The institute said that it has proposed to start 40-50 PhD fellowships at AIIMS, at par with the Prime Minister’s Research Fellows (PMRF) scheme, and allocate a budget of Rs 200 crore for the same, subject to necessary approvals from statutory committees of the AIIMS and the Government of India.
This is the first time that the institute has decided to fund the fellowship of scholars. So far, the candidates had to rely on projects it receives from other institutes and organisations like WHO, ICMR etc, to arrange the fellowship money.
According to the proposal, the fellowship will be awarded for the complete tenure of PhD (3-5 years), with research grant of Rs 5 lakhs per annum, as per PMRF. The monthly grant for year one two and three will be Rs 70,000 while it will be increased to 80 in fourth and fifth year of the PhD programme.
Besides, the institute has also proposed to do away with the interviews with an aim to bring more transparency in selection of candidates.“The selection process should be completely objective, transparent and should be based on written tests (MCQs and OSCE/OSPE). There will be no interview at any stage,” an office memorandum issued from the institute read.
It also said that PhD entrance examination should be conducted twice a year along with the DM and Master of Chirurgiae (MCh) entrance examinations at different centres in the country. “During the interaction of AIIMS Director Dr M Srinivas with faculty, PhD students, it was suggested that there is an urgent need to reform the selection process for PhD and the award of Institute fellowships in AIIMS New Delhi,” said a memorandum.