UGC Lowers Cut Off For Ph.D. Enrolment

Considering the daunting situation of the schedule cast and the scheduled tribes, the UGC has provided some relaxation. As of now, relaxation has been provided in marks to the SC and ST category candidates for the UGC PG enrollment. Along with the not so big changes in the UGC NET 2018 exam to be conducted by the NTA, it was a very considerate change.

In accordance with the amendment, the SC/ST and the OBC category candidates will now get a relaxation of 5% in marks (from 50% to 45%) in the entrance exam conducted by the universities.

The HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar while speaking to the Education Times on the launch of the innovation cell and the Atal Ranking of institutions on innovation achievements said that the UGC move was a result of his proposal which aims to increase the representation of the reserved category candidates in the field of research.

According to the statistics derived by the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE), the number of students enrolled in the Ph.D. is only 1,61,412. This is just 0.5% of the total number of students. Out of this already less number, the number of SC candidates is 14.4% and ST category candidates are just 5.2% and 35% of students belong to the other backward classes.

Associate professor of the Jawaharlal Nehru University said that the decision of lowering the Cut off has been taken to enroll more and more students for the Ph.D. course. However, it has also been suggested that the limit of UGC to enroll only 194 students should also be taken away with as this will increase the enrollment in research. Atwal says that since the university is a central university, it is an affordable university for the candidates belonging to the SC/ST and OBC category. Yet, the number of teachers is more than the number of students.

The two major topics were highlighted by the Head of the Education Department of the Allahabad University, Dhananjay Yadav. He said that most of the reserved category students lack family support and therefore, by lowering the cutoff, their confidence level will drastically increase. Second, he said that with the change in the rules for recruitment of the professors or AP in the Universities, the SC/ST or OBC candidates will be getting the representation in the workforce which everyone is working for.

Better known as the Minimum Standards and Procedure for Awards of MPhil/ Ph.D. Degree Regulations 2018, it was stated that a special admission drive is necessary to be conducted just for the reserved category candidates. This drive has to be launched within one month starting from the date the admissions for the general category candidates gets over.