PhD not mandatory for recruitment of assistant professors till 2023, says UGC

UGC has postponed the mandatory requirement of PhD for candidates to apply for Assistant Professors till July 2023.

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New Delhi: In a relief to many, candidates will not be required to have PhD as a mandatory qualification for recruitment to Assistant Professor posts for the time being. The University Grants Commission (UGC) on Tuesday (October 12) postponed the mandatory requirement of PhD for candidates to apply for Assistant Professors till July 2023, ANI reported. 

Making an extension in view of the COVID-19 situation, UGC said in a statement, "University Grant Commission the apex body of Higher Education has made an amendment in the UGC (Minimum Qualifications for Appointment of Teachers and Other Academic Staff in Universities and Colleges and Measures for the Maintenance of Standards in Higher Education), Regulation, 2018 regarding clause 3.10 that stipulates that the Ph.D. degree shall be a mandatory qualification for direct recruitment to the post of Assistant Professor in Department of the Universities w.e.f. July 1, 2023.” 

This amendment will be known as UGC (Minimum Qualifications for Appointment of Teachers and Other Academic Staff in Universities and Colleges and Measures for the Maintenance of Standards in Higher Education), Amendment Regulation, 2021, the Commission said. 

"This amendment has been published in Part - III, Section- 4 of Gazette of India (Extraordinary) each in Hindi and English which can be downloaded from the official websites," the statement further read. 

In early October, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had divulged that the Centre has decided not to go ahead with the plan to make PhD the minimum qualification to hire assistant professors this year in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“The ministry has put a temporary hold on PhD for assistant professor recruitment and PhD would not be mandatory for this post as of now but has not been cancelled,” he had said. 

Candidates possessing postgraduate degrees, who have cleared the National Eligibility Test, will continue to remain eligible for recruitments to the assistant professor posts.

In 2018, the University Grants Commission (UGC) had modified the criteria for recruitments for entry-level posts at universities and colleges. It had given a three-year window to candidates to complete their PhDs and asked all universities and colleges to start applying the criteria for recruitment from the 2021-22 academic session.

(With agency inputs)