India axes publication goal for PhDs to tackle predatory journals

PhD students in India will no longer be required to publish in academic journals, in a bid to tackle the scourge of predatory titles, as part of a wider relaxation of rules that academics have described as “very problematic”.

Under updated rules issued by the University Grants Commission, students will be eligible to enter doctoral programmes straight after a four-year undergraduate degree – versus after completing a master’s degree, per 2016 rules – provided they have a minimum average of 75 per cent in their coursework. Students entering from a master’s programme must score at least 55 per cent. 

The rules also change requirements for graduation, introducing a requirement that PhD students must be trained in teaching, regardless of discipline.

Deepti Acharya, an assistant professor of political science at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, described the loosening of entry requirements as “very problematic”, warning that it could lead to a rush on PhD degrees, with candidates feeling pressured by parents to continue their education, regardless of their true interest.

“Inclusive education means that everyone should have the opportunity to get education; it can’t be forced…you can’t say that everybody is supposed to do a master’s or PhD. If you make it too common, it will lose its significance,” she said.

Dr Acharya noted that some Indian undergraduate institutions don’t impose requirements on the students they admit, and many take a “lenient” approach to grades.

“Every student who has completed four years of undergraduate studies will feel ‘I can do research’ and you can’t stop them practically, because they’re entitled to it,” she said.

Dr Acharya feared that the changes would result in universities taking on more doctoral students, straining already overstretched academics.

“We have to produce more and more PhDs, and with this, certainly the pressure will be more,” she said.

Sipra Mukherjee, associate professor of English at West Bengal State University, also expressed concern about the potential decline in quality of PhD applicants.

“Relaxing the entry requirements seems counter-intuitive,” she said.

However, the statement that students will no longer be required to publish in academic journals to complete a doctoral degree is perhaps most controversial.

The UGC claims that the shift is designed to combat the proliferation of low-quality, for-profit journals.  

But Dr Mukherjee said that this was the wrong approach. “If we want good quality research, and are worried about the rise of predatory journals that cash in on the students’ need to publish, the concern is the predatory journals,” she said.

Others, though, were more upbeat.

Palash Deb, an associate professor at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, praised the addition of a teaching requirement for students as “a very good idea”.

“Most of them will anyway be working in the large number of teaching-focused universities we have. This will actually help them hit the ground running,” he said, adding that removing publishing requirements for PhDs was a “step in the right direction”.

Debashis Ghoshal, professor of physics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, was similarly optimistic about the publishing requirement.

“To some extent this will take away the predatory journals’ reason to exist, but only if this is followed up with appropriate modification in the hiring and promotion process of faculty,” he said.

He wasn’t too concerned about changes leading to a massive rise in doctoral candidates.

“Even if there is an increase in number initially, I’d guess that there will be significant dropouts along the way.”

pola.lem@timeshighereducation.com