VTU VC's research scholars miss deadline

Students registered for doctoral degree under the supervision of beleaguered Vice Chancellor of the Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) H Maheshappa, missed the deadline for submission of their theses. 

Yet, they seemed to have been exempted from the varsity rules.

When Maheshappa assumed office as the vice chancellor on July 1, 2010, he had claimed that he has been guiding three students registered for PhD on March 20, 2003. But, in its reply to an RTI query on January 5 this year, the VTU has said no student has been awarded PhD under Maheshappa’s guidance by VTU or any other university. Even on the VTU website, the VC has not stated that any of his students was awarded a PhD.

T S Manjunath, A R Karibasava Swamy, T Madhusudhan, who had registered for PhD on March 20, 2003 as part-time research candidates, have not submitted their theses even after eight years and nine months. Another candidate, Sujeet Kumar Singh registered on February 5, 2005, has completed six years.

Till October 2010, the VTU regulations governing the awarding of PhD degree specified that the maximum period for submission of the PhD thesis by regular students was five years from the date of provisional registration.

However, the vice chancellor was authorised to extend the duration by a maximum of one year on the specific recommendations of the doctoral committee.

In the case of part-time research candidates, a maximum of six years and one-year extension were allowed.

If they fail to submit the thesis within the stipulated period, then their registration would be cancelled after issuing showcause notices, the rules stated. The VTU, in October 2010,  increased the duration for submitting the thesis from five to six years for full-time students, and from six to eight years for part-time students.

Maheshappa’s first three candidates, going by the VTU norms, should have submitted their theses by March 21, 2010, even after getting a year’s extension.

However, it is not clear how the research scholars guided by Maheshappa were exempted from the rules, the sources said.