Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has made a big announcement about Postdoctoral or Ph.D Degree for Assistant Professor post.
The Minister has said that Ph.D will not be mandatory for Asst. Professor recruitment but only for the time being. There is just a temporary hold on the plan for most likely this year but it has not been cancelled.
In 2018, the government had said that to be hired at assistant professor posts, candidates will need a PhD and NET will not be the only criteria for recruitment. This was announced under the University Grants Commission (Minimum Qualifications for Appointment of Teachers and other Academic Staff in Universities and Colleges and other Measures for the Maintenance of Standards in Higher Education) Regulations, 2018.
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An assistant professor’s post is an entry-level position at a university’s teaching department and most of the people who apply for it are post-graduates, NET qualified people who are either pursuing PhD or take a break later in their career and enrol for it.
“We were receiving a lot of requests from candidates who wanted to apply for the post of assistant professor but were unable to fulfill their PhD requirement,” Pradhan said.
According to existing norms, candidates who qualify for teacher eligibility exams including NET, SET, SLET are eligible to apply for the post of assistant professor. Candidates who have been awarded a PhD degree in accordance with UGC regulations will be exempted from the requirement of the minimum eligibility condition of NET/SLET/SET.
Reacting to the decision of education minister, Abha Dev Habib, a member of the Delhi University Teachers’ Association, said, “This will help the ad hoc teachers in the university departments whose reappointments were kept pending due to this mandatory PhD clause.”
DUTA representatives on September 15 met UGC officials and raised this issue.
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