Patna University vice-chancellor Arun Kumar Sinha addresses the event to inaugurate the pre-PhD course. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Students would have to attend classes for six months before enrolling in PhD courses in Patna University from this session.

Patna University (PU), following the recommendation of University Grants Commission (UGC), introduced the new norms on Monday. Students who wish to pursue a doctorate would now have to study research methodology before enrolling for a PhD.

PU is the first university in the state to introduce the norms, which other premier institutions of the country like Delhi University and Jadavpur University, Calcutta, already follow. Humanities students would be the first to be brought under the purview of the new norms.

On Monday, the university organised a function on the new norms. Vice-chancellor Arun Kumar Sinha and heads of departments attended the function.

At the function, Sinha said: “Students should present research papers at national and international conferences and seminars. They would be provided all facilities. Books, magazines and periodicals would be available in the departmental and university libraries. Students would face no difficulty in conducting research.”

There are 10 departments such as English, Hindi, Bengali, Sanskrit and philosophy, under the humanities faculty.

Explaining the new method, Amar Kumar Singh, dean, humanities, PU, said: “Students would have to do a six-month or a semester-long course grooming them before they proceed to conduct the research.”

After the course, students will submit a paper on research methodology and another paper on the review of their course material.

Singh said the norms would ensure that only bright students pursue PhDs.

The norms were introduced by the UGC after the 2009 Mungekar committee report found that students with the lowest marks getting enrolled for research and getting a doctorate degree in three to five years.

Students are also happy with the introduction of the new norms.

Shikha, a student who has enrolled for PhD in English this year, said: “The new system will ensure that students cannot complete their theses using unfair means.”

Sources said earlier, some researchers would complete their theses by plagiarising the works of others or sourcing unreliable material from the Internet.

“In the six-month course, we would learn about how to prepare a bibliography, write in-text citation and follow research protocol,” said Shikha.