UGC lowers PhD/M.Phil qualifying marks by 5% to fill reserved seats

NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 11 : The University Grants Commission (UGC) has lowered the PhD and M.Phil programmes’ entrance test qualifying marks to 45 per cent for the reserved category candidates. The decision has been taken by the Commission to fill the vacant seats in PhD and M.Phil programmes. Earlier, the entrance test qualifying marks for all categories including reserved was 50 per cent.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has put an official notification on this naming it as University Grants Commission (Minimum Standards and Procedure for Award of M.Phil/Ph.D Degrees) (1st Amendment ) Regulations, 2018.

The August 27, 2018, MHRD official notification reads, “A relaxation of 5% of marks (from 50% to 45%) shall be allowed for the candidates belonging to SC/ST/OBC (Non-Creamy layers)/Differently-abled category in the entrance examination conducted by the Universities.”

Notwithstanding with the relaxation in percentage of marks for the reserved category, the respective University has also been given the authority to launch Special Admission Drive for PhD/MPhil admissions in the particular category of whose seats remain unfilled.

“The concerned University will devise its own admission procedure, along with eligibility conditions to ensure that most of the seats under these categories are filled,” reads the MHRD official notification on filling the vacant seats for reserved categories.

Further, the MHRD has also mentioned that the Special Admission Drive for that particular category seats shall be launched within one month from the date of closure of admissions of General Category.

The Clause

The Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in accordance with MHRD shall admit the candidates for admissions into PhD and M.Phil programmes by a two-stage process, which includes an entrance test. According to the prescribes syllabus, the entrance test consists of 50 per cent of questions on research methodology and another 50 per cent subject-specific questions.