The Academic Council of University of Mysore on Friday approved the PhD regulations 2022 governing the standards and procedures for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
The new regulations will come into effect from 2022-23 and complies with the UGC notification in this regard issued way back in 2016. The Academic Council meeting was chaired by the varsity Vice Chancellor Prof. G. Hemantha Kumar.
As per the new regulations, there is a change in the pattern of the qualifying examination for registration for PhD and the candidates and the question paper will have 100 objective type questions. A candidate is required to secure a minimum of 50 per cent marks in the entrance examination to become eligible for PhD provisional registration. For candidates from the OBC, non-creamy layer/persons with disability and transgenders, the cut off is 45 per cent and for SC/ST category 1 candidate the qualifying marks is 40 per cent.
In the earlier pattern, there used to be 50 objective-type or multiple-choice questions and the candidate had to write a descriptive or essay-type answers for the remaining 50 marks.
The PhD registration will be valid for 6 years from the date of registration and the PhD programme shall be for a minimum of 3 years including course work and a maximum of 6 years. Woman candidates and persons with disability are allowed a relaxation of 2 years for PhD.
The audit reports and the objections of the auditors pertaining to expenses of the varsity with respect to financial year 2018-19, came up for scrutiny. Prof. Hemantha Kumar flagged the payment to guest lecturers as non-maintainable but guest lecturers have to be paid for their work and hence, the audit objections are not sustainable. A full discussion was pending a detailed study of the report.
The Council also approved the syllabus for the various courses introduced by different deparments and the University School of Engineering and departments as per the NEP 2020.
A section of the council members took strong objections to a specific case of attendance shortage being waived to facilitate students to appear for examination. It was argued that such waiver will not only have a bearing on the reputation of the varsity but would create a trend of students skipping classes or ignoring the lecturers. The Vice Chancellor said a committee would be established to ensure that the regulations pertaining to attendance are complied by all departments. Registrar Prof. R. Shivappa and others were present.