PROPOSED SELECTION PROCEDURE FOR PhD ADMISSION, ENSURES NATURAL JUSTICE

PROPOSED SELECTION PROCEDURE FOR PhD ADMISSION, ENSURES NATURAL JUSTICE

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Most Institutes have adopted a practice of giving written test followed by an interview by a Selection Committee for admission to the PhD programme. This is done after adopting a cut-off percentage / CGPA as a first step for eligibility.

 

Despite testing the ability through written test and interview there is also a minimum cut-off percentage or CGPA requirement for getting shortlisted for the remaining procedure. This condition of minimum cut-off percentage or CGPA is injustice and highly discriminatory. The procedure doesn't offer "equal opportunity" to all qualified candidates and causes frustration & depression in the minds of the qualified candidates. There is no justification of having a minimum cut-off. It doesn't ensure the equal opportunity to all. It is against the natural justice to the admission seeking candidates. The existing procedure may please be modified as follows:

Eligibility: Valid degree irrespective of any percentage or CGPA. Every student having a valid degree must be allowed to take the written test. Please understand that “low percentage / CGPA in the qualifying degree examination don’t prove that the student is bad. There are various possibilities for this kind of poor performance but it doesn’t mean that we should close doors to success forever.

 One must remember the initial progression of Edison and Einstein. Einstein wouldn’t have become one of the greatest scientists according our conditions. Can anybody realize the loss to the World our procedure is causing?

Written Test: Only Optical mark recognition, also called optical mark reading, OMR based test depending on convenience of the institute. Else UGC / AICTE can conduct this test centrally may be twice in a year.

Cutoff: This is the point where reasonable cut-off can be fixed (may be 30%). Don’t shortlist any candidate less than the minimum cut-off even if this results in a dry run. It may be 1:5 minimum if there are sufficient candidates available above the minimum cut-off.

Selection of Broad area of research: It is already there in the “Statement of Purpose”, SOP. No researcher must be forced or compelled to choose a topic which is not her / his choice. Please remember the research is always by CHOICE and not by COMPULSION.

Research Supervisor: It must be the pure choice of the candidate. It has been noticed that most institutes are imposing research topics other than the choice of the candidates for a shear consideration of building the CV of the faculty members.

It is also true that the genuine researcher won’t change the research topic or area for the sake of admission. All those, who accept the change, only prove the point that they are only interested in obtaining the PhD degree purely for the purpose of employment. The Selection Committee must avoid selecting such candidates.

 The actions of so called pseudo intellectuals are destroying the youth, education and research. These people have failed the science and engineering. May God save the research? The Nation is getting very badly impacted. I hope the custodians or the managers of higher education are able to read between the lines.

 Institutes / Universities must only promote the quality research and not number of PhDs for building the CV / Bio-data of faculty members for their promotion alone.