Delhi University PhD Admissions: Entrance test gets 70% weightage, interview 30%; check syllabus

The University of Delhi has notified examination pattern and syllabus for PhD entrance test for those who applied for direct admission to its PhD programmes for 2026-27 academic session after completing a four-year undergraduate programme with research or entrepreneurship.

The entrance test will be conducted for candidates who have completed a four-year or eight-semester undergraduate programme under the University of Delhi's Undergraduate Curriculum Framework (UGCF) 2022, secured the prescribed minimum CGPA and have not qualified the UGC-CSIR NET, GATE, CEED or a similar national-level test.

To appear, candidates must secure at least 7.5 CGPA, while the minimum requirement for SC, ST and PwBD candidates is 7 CGPA. Candidates must have completed a dissertation, an academic project other than translation work, or entrepreneurship during the fourth year of their undergraduate programme to be eligible for the test.

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DU PhD entrance test 2026-27 exam pattern

The PhD entrance test will be conducted for two hours and will carry a total of 100 marks. It will comprise two sections: a research methodology and a subject-specific section.

The research methodology section will consist of MCQs carrying 50 marks. The subject-specific section will comprise descriptive questions related to the research or entrepreneurship undertaken by candidates and will carry the remaining 50 marks.

There will be negative marking for the MCQ section. Each incorrect answer will attract a penalty equivalent to 25% of the marks awarded for a correct answer. For example, if the question is of four marks, one mark will be deducted if the answer marked is incorrect.

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DU PhD admission 2026-27: Interview and selection criteria

Candidates securing at least 50% marks in the entrance test will be called for an interview. The qualifying threshold for SC, ST and PwBD candidates is 45%.

Before the interview, candidates must submit a copy of the dissertation, academic project report or entrepreneurship report on the basis of which they were assessed during the fourth year of their undergraduate programme. The selection of candidates for PhD admission through this process will be based on merit, with 70% weightage given to marks obtained in the entrance test and 30% to interview performance.

DU PhD entrance test syllabus 2026-27

The university has prescribed different Research Methodology syllabi for various academic disciplines.

For Commerce, Humanities, Social Sciences, Home Science, Psychology and Applied Psychology, excluding History, Philosophy, Music and Languages, the syllabus covers the foundations of research, literature review and management, research design and methodology, data collection, sampling, data analysis, and academic and publication ethics.

The topics include research objectives and questions, hypotheses, qualitative and quantitative methods, mixed methods, research databases, research gap analysis, questionnaires, interviews, observations, focus group discussions, sampling techniques and statistical analysis tools. Academic integrity, plagiarism, citation styles, ethical considerations, artificial intelligence and plagiarism detection software are also included.

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For Physical, Natural and Applied Sciences, Electronics, Information Technology and Mathematical Sciences, including Computer Science, the syllabus covers research foundations, literature surveys, data collection and sampling, statistical analysis, research ethics and intellectual property rights, citation styles, journal metrics and scientific communication.

The topics include descriptive and inferential statistics, experimental designs, research software, plagiarism prevention, publication ethics, patents, copyrights, trademarks, reference management software, journal metrics, thesis writing, research grant proposals and poster or oral presentations.

For History, Philosophy, Music and Languages, the Research Methodology syllabus will be based on the respective courses taught in the University of Delhi's four-year undergraduate programmes.

DU notice mentions that the details of Ph.D Entrance Test shall be notified separately.