Ban on PhD and MPhil lifted

Ban on PhD and MPhil lifted

The two year ban on distance PhD and Mphil has been lifted by the University Grants Commission (UGC) after widespread protests by various universities. Protests came from many Open Learning Universities like IGNOU on the ground that their respective laws, passed by Parliament or legislatures, allowed them to provide such courses.

A meeting was held by UGC on the issue last month. There it was decided to lift the ban. The minutes of the meeting said, “An open university may be permitted to conduct MPhil/PhD programmes through distant education mode subject to condition that it does so strictly as per the provisions of the UGC Regulations.”

IGNOU vice-chancellor Rajasekharan Pillai has assured that they would follow the rules and their regulations are already stricter than those of the UGC.

UGC has lifted the ban but it has imposed another condition for Phd. It says that the principal guide should be from the Open University. The UGC had clamped the bar by notifying a rule — the Minimum Standards and Procedure for Awards of MPhil/PhD Degree Regulation — in 2009. All this has come up because UGC believes that research courses in the distant mode were of poor quality. 

The regulations would definitely affect the future of nearly 10,000 students pursuing such courses across the country. The academician who has been as to frame a policy on distance education, M. Madhava Menin said, “There should not be any blanket ban on MPhil or PhD in distance mode. If institutions meet the required quality parameters, they should be allowed to offer such courses.” His report would be submitted next month.

The other area of concern is the inadequate infrastructure of many open universities for carrying out research work.Regarding all this a meeting will be held on 15^th September to lay the appropriate guidelines.

Source: India Education Review