Govt relaxes rule: You need no PhD to become an assistant professor this year

The central government has relaxed the criteria for hiring of assistant professors across higher education institutes by putting on hold the requirement of a postdoctoral degree or PhD as minimum qualification.

The Ministry of Education has made the move in a bid to allow universities to fill vacant posts and keeping in mind the fact that many aspiring professors could not complete their PhDs because of the COVID pandemic.

In 2018, the University Grants Commission (UGC) had set the criteria for recruitments for entry-level posts at universities and colleges and given a three-year window to candidates to complete their PhDs. All universities and colleges had been asked to start applying the criteria for recruitment from the 2021-22 session.

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Education minister Dharmendra Pradhan told the media on Wednesday that the criteria has been put on hold for this year, and candidates, irrespective of whether they have a PhD or not, can apply for an assistant professor’s post, provided they have a postgraduate degree and have cleared the National Eligibility Test (NET).

The ministry’s move is also in response to appeals by candidates to relax the eligibility criteria this year. “We were receiving a lot of requests from candidates who wanted to apply for the post of assistant professor but were unable to fulfil their PhD requirement,” Pradhan said.

“The UGC will soon release a circular to all higher education institutions regarding this decision. It will help colleges and universities to quickly fill all vacant seats,” an official was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.

Pradhan had earlier asked all central universities to fill around 6,000 vacancies by the end of October.

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