New Delhi: Those awarded PhD degrees before 2009 can be appointed assistant professors without having to take the National Eligibility Test even if they got the two mandatory papers published after securing the degree, the University Grants Commission clarified on Friday.

Current regulations require pre-2009 PhD holders to have published at least two papers, including one in a refereed journal, and to have made at least two presentations at conferences to gain exemption from the NET.

However, it had remained unclear whether the papers needed to have been published before the award of the doctorate, as some universities insisted before appointing them.

Those who earned their PhDs since 2009 are exempt from the NET irrespective of their published papers --- provided the institutions that awarded the doctorates to them followed the commission's 2009 quality guidelines.

"The research papers of the candidate from his/her research work published beyond the period of acquiring his/her PhD degree are also acceptable provided it is certified by the PhD degree awarding university," the clarification issued by commission secretary P.K. Thakur said.

It also allowed post-PhD seminar presentations by the candidates to count while determining NET exemption.

Candidates for teaching jobs at universities and colleges need to qualify through the NET or the State Level Eligibility Test (SLET), whichever is relevant, but PhD holders initially enjoyed a blanket exemption. This led to complaints that many of them were not good enough, thanks to a lack of standardisation in doctorate programmes.

In 2009, the regulator came up with norms relating to entrance tests and course work for PhD programmes, and said the existing doctorates must take the NET/SLET to secure teaching jobs.

When this retrospective implementation triggered protests, the government set up a committee under academic Arun Nigavekar in 2015. It said pre-2009 PhD holders should be exempt from these exams if they had been interviewed on their theses by experts, had their theses externally assessed, and had two publications and two presentations under their belt.

The commission amended its regulations accordingly, but some institutions insisted that the candidates must have published their papers and made their presentations before securing the degree, prompting Friday's clarification.