Dharmendra Pradhan was virtually addressing the 26th convocation ceremony of the National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE), Mumbai. (File Photo) Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Monday said that making PhD degree mandatory for the post of assistant professor at universities is “not favourable” in the current education system. His remarks came a month after the UGC decided to defer the move to make the degree mandatory for the hiring of assistant professors to 2023.
Speaking during the convocation ceremony of Allahabad University, Pradhan said, “We believe that PhD is not required to become an assistant professor. This condition cannot be kept if good talent is to be drawn to teaching. Yes, it is required at the level of associate professors and professors. But a PhD for an assistant professor is perhaps not favourable in our system and that’s why we have rectified it.”
The minister also announced that Allahabad University will now have a chair named for Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, adding that academics working at the chair will carry out research on the upliftment of the poor.
In 2018, the UGC had stipulated that PhD shall be mandatory for direct recruitment as assistant professors from July 2021. However, on October 12 this year, the UGC issued a circular saying it has decided to extend the date of applicability of PhD as mandatory qualification from July 1, 2021, to July 1, 2023.
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