The number of research scholars enrolled in premier universities in the country is on the decline, with academics blaming the imposition of uniform admission rules and disruption in the academic calendar because of centralised entrance tests.

According to data provided by the universities to the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), a ranking methodology released annually by the education ministry, the number of enrolled students in full-time PhD courses declined between 2016-17 and 2022-23 in top-ranked Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Central University of Hyderabad, Banaras Hindu University (BHU) and Jadavpur University (JU). (See chart)

The University Grants Commission had notified the UGC (Minimum Standard for Award of MPhil/PhD Degrees) Regulations, 2016.

According to the new rules, a professor cannot guide more than three MPhil students and eight PhD students, an associate professor can guide two MPhil and six PhD students, and an assistant professor can guide one MPhil and four PhD scholars. Faculty members without PhD degrees are debarred from guiding PhD students.

In 2018, the UGC announced that candidates would be required to have PhD degrees to be recruited as assistant professors in universities from July 2021.

In 2021, the UGC deferred the implementation of the policy for two years and reversed its decision in July 2023. This means candidates clearing the National Eligibility Test (NET) and the State Level Eligibility Test (SLET) are appointed as assistant professors even though they cannot guide research scholars.

According to the "State of University" report released by the JNU Teachers Association (JNUTA) on Friday, research scholars accounted for 62 per cent of total students in 2016-17 compared with 43 per cent in 2022-23.

"This decline has also been precipitated by the mindless implementation of UGC regulations. These first imposed a uniform cap on the number of MPhil and PhD students that a teacher can supervise. Then the MPhil programme was scrapped without revising the caps on the number of PhD students, even though supervision came to be restricted to only PhD students as the parallel MPhil supervision was eliminated," said the report.

Till February 2022, when M. Jagadesh Kumar was vice-chancellor, JNU appointed several assistant professors without PhD degrees.

"Currently, the professors are handicapped. If a professor has eight students, he will have to wait till they complete their course to be able to take any new students. In addition, many new faculty members cannot guide. For each slot, at least 10 students apply. Decline in research scholars means a loss for the university," a faculty member said.

Rajeev Kumar, a retired JNU professor of computer science, said the centralised entrance tests for PhD admission were not being conducted on time, affecting the admission schedule.

"The students try for admission to many universities, including state and private ones. The admissions are invariably delayed by central universities as they wait for entrance results to be declared by the National Testing Agency. These universities do not follow common counselling. Some of the aspirants prefer to take admission to a state or private university. Some others block seats in more than one central university and finally surrender them, leading to vacancy," Kumar said.

Prof Sunil Ray, former director at AN Sinha Institute, Patna, said many potential scholars were taking up employment in the private sector instead of doing research.