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Research Centre

UGC to Allow Experts Without PhD to Teach

By
Urjaa Kapasi
April 4, 2022

Lately, the University Grants Commission (UGC) announced that it is putting an end to the mandatory PhD requirement for teaching in the central universities. This means that experts in the fields of engineering, communications, policy, and many more will be allowed to teach in the universities even if they aren’t a PhD holder or a qualifier of the National Eligibility Test (NET).

UGC officials believe that experts are of various kinds. Some could have a lot of practical experience in a particular domain and some could be incredible dancers or musicians. Taking the current rules of the University Grants Commission into consideration, one cannot appoint these professionals. So, it was decided that experience will be the key element for selection instead of a PhD.

Implementation of the new policy can be beneficial as:

• With the introduction of special posts like the professor of practice and the associate professor of practice, the selected course is going to prove to be very helpful in learning about international relations, thus creating a broad spectrum of knowledge.

• Hiring experts from various fields would lead to an all-round development of the students.

• As mentioned in the policy, the experts who have superannuated at 60 years of age can join as faculty members and work till the age of 65. This is a great opportunity for them.

The special posts or positions may be permanent or temporary depending on the requirements of the experts and the institutes affiliated to the University Grants Commission. Also, a committee is going to be made for working on the amendments in the rules for appointment of teachers. Moreover, the UGC is planning a centralised portal to track and ensure on-time appointment of teachers. This is indeed a much-needed system for handling operations.

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