Hyderabad: The state government has come down heavily on the universities allegedly awarding PhDs by the dozen to students for financial gains. An expert committee headed by P Jayaprakash Rao, chairman, APSCHE, declared on Wednesday that PhDs offered to students in the distance education mode would not be considered valid for higher studies or job applications in the state. 

    The committee also asked the students not to opt for such programmes. The expert committee was constituted by the state government to scrutinise the PhDs awarded by Dravidian University to several candidates in the past few years. The university had allegedly awarded thousands of PhDs to students within a span of two years, violating all UGC norms. The university authorities also used to charge over Rs 1 lakh per annum to conduct these PhD programmes. 

    According to the committee, PhD programmes can be offered by professors alone and not other faculty members. The number of PhD seats in a department in a university or educational institution should depend upon the number of qualified faculty members in the department. Each year, a maximum of four new students can be admitted to the PhD programme by a professor.

The committee observed that the PhDs offered by universities violating these norms will have to be declared null and void by the state government.