AICTE proposes new PhD and DSc guidelines, removing interviews and mandating publications

Agra: The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has proposed comprehensive new guidelines for PhD and Doctor of Science (DSc) programmes in technical institutions, aiming to improve research quality, supervision standards, and uniformity across India. The draft rules introduce stricter eligibility criteria, mandatory research publications, standardized evaluation timelines, and remove interview-based selection for PhD admissions, a move that has sparked debate among academicians.

The guidelines have been drafted by a five-member expert committee constituted by AICTE for doctoral programmes in engineering, technology, management, and design. The move seeks to align technical institutions with national standards, as PhD programmes have so far followed UGC regulations, while DSc programmes were governed by separate institutional norms.

Explaining the rationale behind the reforms, Prof. K.R. Venugopal, former Vice-Chancellor of Bangalore University and head of the AICTE committee, said that the guidelines were essential as research forms the core of doctoral studies. He added that the report has been approved by the AICTE Executive Council and is currently with the government for clearance before being notified in the official gazette.

One of the major changes proposed is the replacement of interviews with written entrance examinations for PhD admissions. Candidates qualifying national-level tests such as NET or GATE will be eligible to register at any time. Under the new selection framework, 70 per cent weightage will be given to entrance examination performance and 30 per cent to qualifying academic examinations. According to Venugopal, interview-based selection often led to favoritism, prompting the shift.

However, several academicians have raised concerns over the removal of interviews. Prof. Arun Tangirala of IIT Tirupati noted that interviews play a crucial role in assessing a candidate’s personality, communication skills, and research aptitude, which cannot be evaluated through written tests alone. Prof. Yusuf Akhter of Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University also emphasized that interviews help assess alignment between a scholar’s research interests and the supervisor’s expertise.

The draft guidelines also reinstate mandatory publication requirements, which were removed by the UGC in 2022. Under the proposed norms, both full-time and part-time PhD scholars must publish two research papers in Scopus-indexed journals and one paper in a peer-reviewed conference, with the scholar listed as the first and corresponding author. Exceptional candidates may be allowed to submit their thesis six months early if they meet specified publication and patent criteria, though critics warn this could encourage submissions to low-quality journals.

Additionally, AICTE has introduced an industrial experience route, allowing candidates with at least five years of relevant work experience and a bachelor’s degree with a minimum of 60 per cent marks to pursue doctoral studies. The guidelines also address plagiarism control, ethical use of artificial intelligence, and supervision limits, while expanding eligible supervisor categories to include Professors of Practice and Visiting Faculty.

For DSc programmes, the proposed criteria include holding a PhD, a minimum of 20 years of academic or research experience, at least 25 research publications, 5,000 citations or five Indian utility patents, and supervision of a minimum of 15 PhD scholars. Some academics have described these requirements as overly rigid and exclusionary.

Venugopal acknowledged that since these are the first AICTE-specific doctoral guidelines for technical education, coordination with the UGC and other stakeholders will be necessary to address jurisdictional overlaps before final implementation.

The proposed guidelines are intended to strengthen doctoral research standards, ensure quality supervision, and promote publication-driven scholarship across technical institutions in India.