The University Grants Commission on Tuesday reiterated that Master of Philosophy, or MPhil, degrees are no longer recognised and warned universities against offering the programme.
In a notification, the authority said that it has noticed a few universities are inviting admission to MPhil programmes. It said that the Minimum Standards and Procedures for Award of PhD Degree rules of the University Grants Commission state that higher educational institutions shall not offer any MPhil programme.
Therefore, it advised students to not take up MPhil courses and asked universities to immediately stop admissions to the programme for the 2023-’24 session.
The commission had last year announced the discontinuation of the MPhil programme.
On November 7, 2022, the University Grants Commission told universities to not offer the MPhil programme from the next session. It had clarified that MPhil courses that started before the 2022 notification will not be affected and the students will be allowed to complete the courses.
In the revised rules, the commission said that students with a four-year undergraduate degree with a minimum 75% marks or its equivalent grade will be eligible for a PhD programme.
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