PhD not mandatory to hire Assistant Professor : Government

Union Education Minister Dharmendra Prasad says PhD requirement is being temporarily suspended to open up the post to more candidates.

Teaching Aspirants without a PhD degree might have a sigh of relief. The central government has temporarily put on hold the mandatory PhD requirement for the post of assistant professor. The Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said, "candidates who have qualified the National Eligibility Test (NET) will continue to be eligible to apply for the post". So now on, a NET Qualification will be enough to apply for the jobs.

Actually, in 2018, the government announced that all recruitment in universities and colleges from 2021-22 academic session will be done on the basis of PhD and NET will not be the sole criterion for selection. However, this decision was not met with ecstatic enthusiasm as those without a PhD were bound and could not apply. Now that has been taken into consideration and PhD has been made not mandatory for professor jobs.

The Education minister informed the press that the plan has been put on hold for this year. Candidates, irrespective of whether they have a PhD or not, can apply for the assistant professor’s position. An assistant professor’s post is an entry-level position at a university’s teaching department and most of the people who apply for it are post-graduates. NET qualified people majorly are either pursuing PhD or take a break later in their career and enrol for it.