The University Grants Commission has put off by two years a new rule that makes a PhD mandatory for direct recruitment as assistant professor at any university.

The rule was to be implemented from July this year but was not. It will now come into force from July 2023.

A UGC official said that many PhD students have been unable to submit their thesis on time because of the Covid outbreak.

“The UGC had received representations from students and teachers’ organisations on the difficulty faced by research scholars in completing their work on schedule,” the official said.

“They said that enforcing the new rules would deprive good scholars of the opportunity to apply. The UGC considered the issue and deferred the enforcement.”

The UGC has amended the UGC (Minimum Qualifications for Appointment of Teachers and Other Academic Staff in Universities and Colleges and Measures for the Maintenance of Standards in Higher Education), Regulation, 2018, to give this relaxation.

Currently, candidates who clear the National Eligibility Test (NET) or earn a PhD are eligible to apply for an assistant professor’s job in the universities. The new regulations allow those who clear the NET but have no PhD to be recruited as teachers at colleges but not at universities.