Madurai Kamaraj University has decided to formally adopt the revised University Grants Commission (UGC) regulations of 2016 that define the procedures and minimum standards to be followed for the award of M.Phil and Ph.D degrees.
The revised regulations drafted by the Research Committee of the university by adopting UGC (Minimum Standards and Procedure for Award of M.Phil/Ph.D degrees) Regulations 2016 in toto were passed by the Academic Council (AC) here on Friday.
Though a section of AC members registered concerns about certain provisions of the regulations and the urgency in adopting the regulations, senior members of the university administration argued that the UGC had made it mandatory.
A. Vijayarangan, Syndicate member, who chaired the AC meeting, and K. Muthuchelian, Controller of Examinations (in-charge), said that the UGC regulations had been notified in the gazette on 5 May 2016 and the university did not have a choice but to implement it retrospectively from that date.
K. Ravichandran, Special Officer, MKU, who moved the resolution, said that any further delay by the university in adopting the regulations would adversely affect research students. “All the students registering for Ph.D and M.Phil after 5 May 2016 will need a certificate that they completed their research work as per these revised guidelines,” he said.
The revised UGC regulations had brought several changes, particularly in the admission and evaluation process for Ph.D and M.Phil degrees.
Explaining the key changes, Mr. Ravichandran said that the minimum duration for Ph.D had been made as three years as per the new regulations.
Pointing out that admissions to both Ph.D and M.Phil would be done through a common entrance test conducted by the university, he said that restrictions had also been imposed on the number of M.Phil and Ph.D candidates a Research Guide could accommodate.
“There is also a condition that one of the research examiners should be from outside India,” he added.
Speaking at the meeting, V. Chinniah, Professor and Head, Department of Management Studies, questioned whether the Registrar’s office could push for such key changes in the absence of Vice-Chancellor.
“It looks like we may be getting a VC soon. Why can’t we wait till then?” he asked.
Another faculty member argued the need for adopting the regulations when the university had not implemented similar regulations of UGC, which dealt with appointments, including that of VC.
Acknowledging that the new regulations would help improving quality, S. Nehru, Principal, Mannar Thirumalai Naicker College, however, alleged that the regulations took away the autonomy of colleges to an extent in the admissions.
M. Kannan, Principal, Saraswathi Narayanan College, said that Ph.D and M.Phil admissions in the coming academic year could be affected as there were only a couple of months left for the academic year to commence.
