Ambedkar University to admit PhD students through CUET; 30% weightage for interview

NEW DELHI: State-run Ambedkar University Thursday said it will admit PhD students through the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) from the upcoming academic year. Making the announcement, Vice Chancellor Anu Singh Lather said this will be the first time the university will grant admission to its PhD courses through a common test, doing away with its earlier process of conducting its own written tests and interviews.

For admission, the university will be giving 70 per cent weightage to CUET PhD 2023 and 30 per cent to interviews, Lather said. "We have not subscribed 100 per cent to the CUET as we have our process as well. We will also consider the marks scored in interviews," the vice chancellor said.

There will be around 250 seats up for grabs across the 19 PhD programmes at the university, according to AUD's brochure. Literary Art, Film Studies, Management, and English are some of the PhD programmes that students can opt from.

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AUD began taking admission into undergraduate courses via CUET-UG in 2022. Asked about why the university has opted for CUET PhD, Registrar Nitin Malik said, "We want good PhD scholars from all across the country. Our PhD programmes are for pan-India students, unlike the undergraduate courses where 85 per cent of seats are reserved for Delhi-based students."

State government funded Delhi University colleges allow 85 per cent reservation for city students. Lather said to promote research culture in the university, an allowance system known as 'AUD Merit Research Fellowship' was introduced two years ago. Under this scholarship, 'merit research fellows' receive an allowance equivalent to Junior Research Fellows (JRF) funded by the University Grants Commission (UGC), she added.

"A total of 100 seats have been allocated for the merit fellows, out of which 18 were admitted in 2021-22 and 25 in 2022-23. This is the third year where select students will be granted admission under the AUD MRF," Lather said. The vice-chancellor said that the in-house MRF scholarship and UGC JRF scholarship together help almost all research scholars in AUD secure a monthly allowance.