More than two and half weeks ago, the University Grants Commission has released a notice stating that they will be reviewing the Quality of PhD thesis’ that have been conducted in India over the past decade, the Commission has received almost 150 proposals for conducting the study.
Almost two weeks ago, UGC had announced that due to persistent concerns regarding the quality of PhD thesis’ were raised by various members, UGC had given people outside of the UGC the opportunity to look into the matter. They had released a notice asking the people, institutions or organisations to send in their proposals for conducting the study.
Commenting on the number of proposals that UGC received, Dr Patwardhan, Vice-Chancellor of UGC stated that the number has been impressive. He added that the entire project will help the commission understand the actual quality of the PhD thesis’ that are being produced as well as the gaps that are being formed during the research. He adds that they will also use the study as a means to improve the quality of the research work. He also added that all the proposals that have been received by UGC will be sent in for evaluation which will be done by an expert committee, following which the best proposal will be given the task of conducting the study in a span of six months.
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Dr Patwardhan added that the proposals are being shortlisted and selected on the basis of the competency, methodology as well as the experience of the candidate and their overall planning for the study. He stated that the selection of the proposals will be complete in the next few weeks. He added that various educationals organisations such as IITs and other Universities have deposited their proposals along with private organisations and individuals as well.
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Dr Patwardhan told sources that there are plans to allocate the work to different people at once in order to complete the study faster than the scheduled time. They will build a common protocol which will be followed by all the teams for each discipline. He added that a team of experts will be formed next week.