Reforming Doctoral Programs in India

By Dr. Kamlesh Misra

I have been thinking of writing on this subject for some time but never came around to doing it. In this piece that I am writing I want to raise some important question and provide some suggestions on reforming the PhD programs in Indian Universities.

We are all aware of the declining standards of doctoral programs in India but very little has been done to restructure it. UGC has come out with some recommendations but they fall short of what is required to create good doctorates in the country.

Having said this, I believe that there are still some good centers of excellence that are doing a good job but the condition of the doctoral programs in the universities has taken a beating. Our Universities are doing a bad job and the trend has to be reversed to bring back the glory that has been lost.

To a great extent we should hold the teachers responsible for it as they have failed to maintain the standards required. As the research culture in universities is on a decline, it is reflecting in the kind of doctorates we are producing every year. A very small percentage of teachers in the universities are engaged in real research thus training students has become a more difficult job at the universities.

Added to this is the fact that many teachers are literally dictating to the doctoral students what to write. Much of what is being written in the thesis work is a compilation of existing material from various sources. There does not seem to be any new knowledge creation taking place at the universities.

I am told by several doctoral students that their guides are taking money to have them complete the degree. Many of these students are also engaged in doing household jobs at the houses of their guides which includes taking children to school, buying of vegetables and in some instances even cooking food. If we as teachers are going to fall so low then there is no hope to reform the education system of this country.

There was a time in this country where professors were happy to put their names as second authors and giving their students the first authorship when publishing a paper. Today we stand at cross roads where professors are putting their names as first authors even if they have not contributed anything to the paper being published. Such practices by teachers are what I call as misuse of the position of power and it reflects badly on the teaching profession as a whole.

In many instances students have become victims of the departmental politics where they are stranded because there is so much politics and group culture within the departments. All these put together have not helped in creating an environment conducive for research in our universities.

These days’ doctorates are being awarded in large numbers and fairly quickly. All you need to do is to write the thesis and wait for the minimum period to be completed and then you submit. Some universities in the private sector will even help you with a back dated registration so that you can finish the PhD in lesser time. The examiners are also selected based on the choice of the candidate and the guide ensuring that a doctorate will be awarded irrespective of the type of work that is presented.

It is systems of you scratch my back and will scratch your back. Everyone seems to be hand-in-glove in this game.

Copyright – Calvin & Hobbes

The current system requires that a candidate for award of doctorate degree register with a university, submit his proposal, go through a few formalities and begin to write the thesis and get the degree. Only recently the UGC has provided some guidelines where some coursework is required. Over the past few years I have interviewed over 500 candidates for position of faculty member at the University level. I must confess that looking for a good faculty member is like looking for a needle in a hay stack. They all say they have the UGC qualification but have not written a single work beyond their thesis. In reality our graduating doctorates are a true reflection of their supervisors.

Let’s now look at another aspect and that related to the part-time Ph.D Programs. With a few exceptions the condition here is extremely bad and degrees are being distributed. It can safely be said that some private universities in the Northeast are literally selling it. The current recruitment of teachers in universities is a reflection of the quality of our teaching fraternity. I strongly feel that we are all sitting on a time bomb waiting to explode. The bigger problem is that we have so many interest groups that we don’t even want to speak the truth.

The reason that I am listing these practices is to provide a perspective to the existing problem and then look for appropriate solutions.

I believe that we could reform the higher education system and more specifically the doctoral programs in a very short period if there is a will to do it.

Here is my proposal for change and restructuring the doctoral programs in Indian Universities:

1. Coursework Requirement: All candidates registered for a Ph.D programs should complete 40 credits of post master’s level coursework which will require a minimum of one year on a full-time basis.

2. Comprehensive Exams: After completion of coursework requirement all candidates must take and pass comprehensive exams within their subject areas which should include statistics and research methods.

3. Proposal Defense: Submit and defend the proposal for research work to a departmental committee but open to all departments of the university.

4. Thesis: Write the thesis and successfully defend it.

5. Review the delivery of the part-time programs and for now have restriction on it in the private universities. They are still not ready for it.

In this way we make the Ph.D program very demanding and a great learning experience to candidates. Opportunities should be provided to students to get attached with professors in research and teaching.

All PhD candidates must be fully supported either by the Government or by the University. Spoon feeding should be stopped and students must be pushed to do good research and to publish independently on their own.

In the United States, about 30 to 40 percent of candidates enrolled in the Ph.D program don’t complete it. It may be due to the fact that on an average a Ph.D in the United States would take about 5 years to complete and in many cases it may not be value for money in a developed economy. They may thus discontinue due to the investment of time and money. What I have suggested is not something that is not being done. In some of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) this process is already in place and has given good results.

I however, feel that the most important change that will be required will be the mindset of the university teachers. They will need to become custodians of quality education and have to become more demanding with their students. A Doctorate should not be a right, it is to be earned by hard work. Only then will we produce the best of the minds and begin to turn the clock. These are initial thoughts and we can build on this with further refinements.

Think about it…..

Dr. kamlesh Misra is Vice Chancellor, Auro University, Surat, India. After completing his Ph.D. from Northeastern University, Boston, he taught there as a lecturer until 1990. He completed advanced training in Financial Management of Local and Regional Governments from Harvard Institute for International Development, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA and served as an Economist at the Center for Social & Urban Research, Pittsburgh University from 1990 to 1994 after which he returned to India to Join as HDFC Associate Professor at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, New Delhi. Dr. Misra was the technical advisor to the First Punjab State Finance Commission. He has to his credit the establishment of three of the most successful foreign universities (Bradford University, Oxford Brookes University & Lancaster University) collaborations in India.

Cover image courtesy dreamstime