Govt Makes PhD ‘Not Mandatory’ For Assistant Professor Recruitment For This Year

New Delhi: In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Centre has put on hold the plan to make PhD a minimum requirement for assistant professors’ recruitment this year.

It may be recalled that in 2018, the University Grants Commission (UGC) had set the criteria for recruitments for entry-level posts at colleges and universities.

The UGC had provided the candidates a three-year window to complete their PhDs and directed all varsities and colleges to apply the recruitment criteria from the 2021-22 academic session. However, owing to the pandemic, several candidates failed to complete their PhDs and were appealing to the government to relax the eligibility for this year.

“The government has decided to put on hold the mandatory PhD requirement for assistant professors post for this year. We were receiving a lot of requests from candidates who wanted to apply for the post but were unable to fulfil their PhD requirement,” Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan said.

“The UGC will soon release a circular to all higher education institutions regarding this decision. It will help colleges and universities to quickly fill all the vacant seats,” an official, who wished to remain anonymous, said.

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