CHENNAI: Due to more weightage in recruitment and a move to make PhD mandatory for entry level assistant professor jobs in universities, the number of PhD registrations at colleges and research institutions affiliated to Madras University have gone up from 406 in 2019 to 859 in 2021.
Among the current faculty members in colleges, only 30%-50% are PhD holders and more are registering now. There are around 5,000 scholars doing research under Madras University.
“Due to the UGC’s move making PhD mandatory for entry level assistant professor jobs, the university and colleges have witnessed an increase in PhD registrations. We will take steps to improve the quality of research as well,” said vice-chancellor S Gowri.
D G Vaishnav College principal S Santhosh Baboo said the increase in PhD registrations was due to more importance given to research and more weightage for PhDs in recruitment.
Women’s Christian College has an equal number of students, faculty members registering for PhDs this year. “Usually, women candidates give priority to family over research. People reluctant to do research earlier are now coming forward due to career advancement among other factors,” said principal Lillian Jasper.
Madras Christian College and Loyola College have asked the university to relax the PG teaching experience rule for getting guideship to further increase the PhDs. “Increase in PhD registrations is a good thing. But it is not adequate. To increase research guides and PhDs, Madras university should allow faculty members with PhD or post-doctoral research and publications in reputed journals to get guideship by relaxing the rule,” said MCC principal P Wilson.
Academicians want the government to give research fellowships to state universities. “UGC funds for research have declined over the years. To attract the best students towards research and to improve the quality, the state should offer research fellowships to state universities,” said P Duraisamy, former vice-chancellor of Madras University.
Several steps like introducing an online monitoring system for PhD scholars and a new set of guidelines for local and foreign examiners have been taken to improve research quality, he said.
