New regulations for PhD, degree courses

Higher Education Minister V S Acharya told mediapersons that all universities would invite comments on the regulations from the public, and finalise them later.

Under the new PhD regulations, course work of six months has been made compulsory as per the UGC guidelines. There will three theory papers of 100 marks each, and 50 marks for viva voce. The three papers will be on research methodology, core subject paper, and field of specialisation.

The regulations also mandate the setting up of a doctoral committee that will conduct pre-registration and pre-submission of thesis collegiums for each candidate. Students will be given three to five years to complete their PhD. Every student will be required to publish at least two research papers in journals of repute before being eligible to submit their thesis.

The adjudication of the thesis will be done by a two-member committee - one from Karnataka and another from outside the State, including foreign adjudicators. Both the adjudicators shall recommend the award of degree to enable the student to face the PhD viva. After award of degree, the soft copy of the thesis shall be hosted on INFLIBNET, and a copy shall be sent to UGC.

Uniform regulations

The Council also gave its nod for uniform regulations for degree courses such as BA, BSc, BCom, BBM and Masters degree courses.

Acharya said: "We wanted all universities in the State to have some standard regulations" .

Under these rules, all the universities will have uniform regulations for eligibility, admission, migration of students from one university to the other, attendance, question paper setting and evaluation, award of grace marks and classification of successful candidates’ ranking. The Council has also fixed the minimum duration of clearing the degree to double the duration of the programme.