New Delhi, March 31: Over 1 lakh PhDs facing disqualification from college teaching jobs could get relief if the Centre accepts draft norms of a panel that has partially relaxed UGC rules.

The government appointed panel led by professor Arun Nigavekar, a former UGC chairman, has recommended that if a job aspirant has appeared for an open viva voce, has had external assessment done of her thesis and has two publications in her name - one in a peer-reviewed journal - then she would be eligible for an assistant professor's job in a college or university. She would be eligible for the same jobs as those who had cleared the national or state-level eligibility tests called Net and Slet.

Before 2009, there were no UGC rules on PhD job aspirants. Each university made its own rules. There were, however, complaints that a lack of monitoring and standardisation was adversely affecting the quality of research.

In order to address these complaints, the UGC in 2009 framed new rules for PhDs who aspired to be college and university teachers. The rules said a job aspirant would have to show that she got admission to the PhD programme through an entrance test and had done course work before writing the thesis.

Course work pertains to studying the ways to conduct research.

The UGC said the rules would have retrospective effect. This put the jobs of over 1 lakh teachers in doubt as they had got their PhDs before 2009 and their degrees did not conform to the UGC's new rules.

The Nigavekar-led panel, which held discussions with faculty members across the country, said in its draft recommendations that it was unfair to implement the PhD norms retrospectively to make it equivalent to Net, now the national qualifying exam to become an assistant professor.

However, the panel felt that certain norms could not be ignored while treating PhDs who had not appeared for Net. The PhD should have appeared for an open viva voce and two external examiners should have assessed the thesis. The student should have published two papers, one in a peer review journal, it said.

"Eighty per cent of degree holders will be eligible for teaching jobs if the government gives conditional equivalence to Net-Slet," said professor Kesab Bhattacharya, the president of All-India Federation of University and College Teachers' Organisations.

He said most universities had been following the three norms while granting PhDs for over a decade.

The committee also examined concerns expressed by teachers over the academic performance indicator (API) scheme, which prescribes a point-system for promotion of teachers. It wants teachers to earn points from teaching, research and extension activities to be eligible for a promotion.

The panel suggested that for first promotion from assistant professor to associate professor, more importance should be given to teaching than research. The next promotion from associate professor to professor would give priority to research over teaching.