The Centre has decided to put on hold the plan to make PhD a minimum qualification for recruitment of assistant professors for this year in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The ministry has put a temporary hold on PhD for assistant professor recruitment and PhD would not be mandatory for this post as of now but has not been cancelled†Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan told the media.
The University Grants Commission (UGC) in 2018 set the criteria for recruitments for entry-level posts at universities and colleges. It had given a three-year window to candidates to complete their PhDs and asked all universities and colleges to start applying the criteria for recruitment from the 2021-22 academic session. Due to the pandemic, many candidates could not complete their PhDs and were appealing to the government to relax the eligibility this year.
Candidates possessing postgraduate degrees, who have cleared the National Eligibility Test, will continue to remain eligible for recruitments to the assistant professor posts.
