PhD mandatory for assistant professors recruitment in universities from 2021

In its latest move, the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has made PhD degree mandatory for recruitment of assistant professors in universities across India. However, the decision will come into effect from the academic session, 2021-22.

In the latest UGC regulations released by MHRD, provisions have also been made to recruit assistant professors who are PhD degree holders and have graduated from any of the top 500 universities/ colleges abroad. It may be noted that till now such candidates were not eligible to secure jobs in Indian universities.

Currently, a master’s degree along with UGC NET (University Grants Commission National Eligibility Test) score is enough to secure a job as an assistant professor, the entry-level position in Indian universities and colleges. But with MHRD’s latest move the significance of NET is likely to go down in future. However, master’s degree with NET or PhD will continue to be the minimum eligibility criteria for direct recruitment of teachers in colleges.

As per Prakash Javadekar, Minister, MHRD, PhD has been made mandatory for recruitment of assistant professors in universities from the academic session commencing in 2021 and cracking NET will not be accepted as the only eligibility criteria.

While announcing the new UGC regulations, Javadekar also announced that Academic Performance Indicators (API), which was compulsory for college teachers has now been scrapped so that they can focus on imparting quality education. The API will be replaced by a new simplified teacher evaluation grading system with research score added for universities to improve research output. As per Javadekar, teaching outcomes would be considered for promotion and if a professor does research work, it would add additional points for promotion.

According to Javadekar, the whole effort is to improve quality of higher education and attract and retain the best teachers in universities across the country. There are no other changes in the incentives of the earlier UGC regulations.