Students in India may now get to pursue a PhD directly after their four-year graduation or masters programme. The Indian education board is planning to phase out M.Phil degree from academic institutions.
The final draft by the education policy by the Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry said, “The M.Phil programme shall be discontinued". “Undertaking a Ph.D shall require either a Master’s degree or a 4-year bachelor’s degree with research," the draft said.
As M.Phil, the advanced Master’s degree is losing popularity, the government is looking to introduce research as a part of the graduation programme itself. The plan is also to restructure other higher education courses as well.
The change in education policy has come after 30 years. The draft by HRD underlines the changes in policy, including the structure and lengths of various degree courses delivered by universities and colleges.
The undergraduate programme will either be for three-years or four years. Higher education will have multiple exit options and credible certification.
“The 4-year programme will provide students the opportunity to experience the full range of liberal arts education. This will be called the Bachelor of Liberal Arts (BLA) or Bachelor of Liberal Education (BLE) in the chosen major and minors. Both programmes may lead to a degree ‘with Research’, if the student completes a rigorous research project as specified by the institution. The 3-year programme will lead to a Bachelor’s degree. HEIs may choose to call their 3-year undergraduate degree a Bachelor of Arts, or Science, or Vocation, or the appropriate professional field," the final draft says.
“There are two components so far as M.Phil and P.hD degrees are concerned—one, M.Phil will most likely go, and second, a research component will be introduced in the fourth year of the graduation and that will make a student eligible to pursue research. While PhD after graduation is not allowed in universities, IITs has a provision to enroll students in PhD after their four year Bachelor in technology (B.Tech) courses," said a government official who declined to be named.
He also said that lesser people are now enrolling for an M.Phil. According to official data, in 2016-17, while 43,267 students took admission in M.Phil courses, the number declined to 34,109 in 2017-18. In 2018-19, 30,692 students including 19,069 female students enrolled for the M.Phil courses across the country.
India has been formulating a new education policy for the last five years. The final report K. Kasturirangan Committee was made public on 31st May. The committee has met 115,000 times since June and has also received more than 200.000 suggestion from the public.
