Every candidate has to complete certain requirements during his/her Ph. D. programme as given in thefollowing paragraphs. The process starts with applying for Ph. D. programme of the Institute and getting admitted.
Departmental Research Committee (DRC)
Each Department has a “Departmental Research Committee” (DRC), consisting of Head of Department
(HOD) as ex-officio member and Chairperson, and 2 to 6 faculty members, at the level of Assistant
Professor or above, who are active in research. The committee is responsible for monitoring research
activity in the department. Every candidate has to interact closely with DRC of the department he/she is
concerned.
Doctoral Advisory Committee (DAC)
For each Ph.D. student, the DRC will recommend a notional thesis supervisor or mentor on the basis of department need and student‟s area of interest. Further, for each Ph.D. student, the DRC will, in consultation with the notional supervisor of the student, appoint two additional members for Doctoral Advisory Committee (DAC) from the department. For students in interdisciplinary area there can be DAC member(s) from other department/campuses based on topic of research. For aspirant PhD student, one DAC member may be from the Industry/Laboratory/Company the candidate belongs to, while the other DAC member should be from the parent department.
Registration
All the candidates have to register in every semester till the submission of his/her thesis. In the beginning
of each semester, all the candidates will sign the registration card confirming their registration for the
semester. This card indicates the courses in which he/she is being registered in that particular semester.
Registration of on-campus candidates (Full Time and Part Time) will be done by campus based Academic
Registration and Counselling (ARC) Division on the day of registration. Semester fee and all other dues
are to be cleared before registration in each semester.
Under exceptional conditions, a candidate can seek permission for not registering in a particular semester
by making an application to the Associate Dean, ARD well before the beginning of semester giving valid
reasons for the same. The application has to be recommended by the supervisor(s) and forwarded by
DRC of the concerned department.
Duration of Ph. D. programme
A student must submit his thesis within ten semesters (excluding summer terms) to be counted from the
semester next to passing the qualifying examination. If the student fails to submit his thesis within
stipulated period he may request the respective DRC for extension of time. Such extension for
submission of thesis are limited to a maximum of four semesters. Thus, the duration for submitting final
thesis (including all extensions and semester withdrawals) are limited to 14 semesters. If a candidate
fails to submit his/her final thesis during this period, he/she will be discontinued from the programme. The
female candidates who have availed maternity leave during this period may be given one extra semester
for thesis submission
Course work
For students admitted with First Degree as highest qualification, the DRC will, in consultation with the
student‟s notional supervisor and DAC members, will prescribe course work. The minimum of number of
courses shall be six with minimum of 24 units. Candidate should not obtain less than D grade in any
course and should have minimum CGPA of 5.50. If less than D grade is obtained, course should berepeated. On obtaining less than D grade in more than one course or CGPA less than 5.50, student shall
be discontinued from the programme.
Students admitted with Higher Degree (HD) may also be required to do course work if he is working in
different area than his area of HD or having less than 6 courses in his HD. Number of courses will be
decided by the Notional Supervisor and DAC members in order to prepare the candidate to undertake
research in the chosen area. Number of courses can vary from zero to 6. On successful completion of
prescribed course work a Ph.D. student will be eligible to appear in qualifying examination, and can apply
for the same to DRC.
Ph. D. Qualifying Examination
Each Ph.D. student must, in consultation with his/her notional supervisor, plan for and prepare to clear
qualifying examinations in two areas from the list of qualifying examination areas identified by each
department. One of these must be in the sub-discipline in which he/she proposes to undertake research.
An application should be made to DRC in the format provided through notional supervisor to appear in the
qualifying examination. Qualifying examination will consist of written test followed by an oral test.
At the beginning of each semester, the DRC of each department will announce dates in that semester for
holding qualifying examination in each of the sub-disciplines.
For research sub area click here. For syllabus of qualifying examination, please visit the respective
department website.
Topic of Research & Supervisor
Once a Ph.D. student clears the required qualifying examination, he/she, in consultation with his/her
notional supervisor and the DAC members, will decide upon the topic, the co-supervisor (if required),
submit a research proposal and give a presentation to the DAC members. For preparation of proposal,
candidate should carry out a comprehensive literature search, understand the background and scope of
research in the particular area of interest. Based upon DAC recommendation, the DRC will recommend
for approval of
(i) supervisor (and co-supervisor),
(ii) the research topic together with the detailed proposal and its summary,
(iii) the research plan, and
(iv) place of research work, as per requirement. Dean, ARD in consultation with Doctoral Counselling
Committee (DCC) members will grant the approval. At this stage, the student formally becomes eligible
to register in the Ph.D. thesis course.
Normally the approval of research proposal has to be obtained within two semesters of passing the Ph.D.
qualifying examination. Registration in BITS C799T Ph.D. Thesis (10 units) is permitted only after the
approval of Topic of Research and Supervisor.
Semester Work
The operation of the courses in which the candidate is registered has to be carried out as per details
outlined in the course handout. The following documents are to be submitted each semester as per
schedule indicated in the calendar of events.
1. Plan of work for the semester courses in which the candidate is registered.
2. Mid-Semester evaluation forms and work reports
3. Final semester evaluation forms and work reportsThrough the supervisor(s) and DAC, DRC will monitor progress of the student. At the end of each
semester, grades will be communicated by DRC to Associate Dean, ARD. Non-receipt of evaluation
forms and reports by the due dates may result into a `NC‟ (Not Cleared) in the particular course. Award
of „NC‟ in two consecutive semesters may debar a student from being on the rolls of Ph.D. students.
Pre-submission draft and Seminar
On completion of research, the Ph.D. student will prepare a draft thesis, and will submit two copies of the
same to DRC for preliminary but detailed assessment by DAC members. After assessment, the
candidate will give pre-submission seminar in the department where DAC, DRC and other faculty
members and students may also be invited. The exact title of the Thesis is also discussed at the time of
pre-submission seminar.
Thesis Title Approval
After the pre-submission seminar, candidate will submit a request for title approval to DRC,) for title
approval in the required format. The proposed title of the Ph.D. thesis is then approved by the DCC.
Thesis submission
The candidate can submit his/her Ph.D. thesis once the draft thesis has been approved by the DAC and
his title is approved by DCC. The candidate and the Ph D supervisor, will ensure that the thesis is free
from plagiarism. An anti-plagiarism software may be used for this purpose. The primary responsibility of
any copyright violations in the thesis would remain with the student as the author of the thesis. Thesis
along with synopsis and relevant documents are to be submitted to Convener, DRC. The supervisor will
also submit a panel of 6-8 examiners in the required format to DRC.
Examination of thesis
Dean ARD will send the thesis with approved examiners to Registrar for necessary communication. TheRegistrar will communicate with examiners and send the thesis for evaluation. The thesis will beexamined by three examiners appointed by the Vice-Chancellor. The supervisor(s), shall be one of theexaminers. The examiners will give separate reports, each report concluding with a final and unequivocalverdict on the thesis in terms of only one of the following three alternatives- The thesis is approved for the viva-voce examination, or
- The thesis requires revision and resubmission, or
- The thesis is rejected.
If the verdicts of the three examiners do not coincide, arrangements will be made to circulate the threereports among all the examiners and, if necessary, to convene a meeting of the three examiners so thatthey might arrive at unanimous verdict on one of the above three alternatives. When this process yieldsno unanimity or when the thesis is rejected, the student's registration in the Thesis course for thatsemester will be cancelled and he will be asked to discontinue from the programme and his/her gradesheet will show DP against the
Thesis course
When a student has been required to revise and resubmit his/her thesis, his/her status will revert to what
it was, in all respects, before he submitted his/her thesis but would not alter the original deadline for
submission of the thesis. If the current last date of submission of the thesis is considered to be
inadequate he must immediately request for extra time from the Doctoral Counselling Committee. The
revised thesis should be examined as far as possible by the same team of examiners.
On receiving the positive recommendation of the 3 examiners, the Registrar will communicate to Dean
ARD for conduct of viva-voce examination.The viva-voce may be held at the respective campus in the presence of
the (i) Supervisor, (ii) at least one external examiner, and (iii) Co-supervisor(s), if any.
Once viva-voce is held, the final report will be sent to the Registrar for getting approval from Examination committee.
The award of the degree will subsequently be ratified by the Senate.
Change of Supervisor/Topic of Research
A fresh approval of the DCC is required for any changes in topic of research, locale of work and/or
supervisor. Candidate has to request through supervisor and DRC for the same.
Inter conversion of Full Time Ph D to Part Time
A student admitted as Full Time scholar may be allowed to take transfer to Part time scheme provided-
- Students meet the basic eligibility criteria of Part Time student.
- Student has completed major part of his research work as certified by the supervisor and has completed at least 20 units of Ph D thesis course.
- The concerned Ph D supervisor, co-supervisor and respective DRC agree for such transfer.
- The DRC may also recommend the transfer of a student from Part-Time to Full Time category, provided research positions and stipend are available. Approval for such transfers will be granted by Dean ARD in consultation with DCC.
Minimum academic requirements for continuation
A student will not be permitted to continue in the Institute under any one of the following situations:
- He/ she fails to take or pass the Qualifying Examination within the prescribed time of two semesters(excluding summer term) after the admission.
- His/her CGPA, where applicable, falls below 5.50 and he fails to bring it up to 5.50 within two subsequent semesters;
- He/ she accumulates two consecutive interim 'unsatisfactory' grades in the Thesis course;
- He/ she fails to submit his/her thesis/revised thesis within the time prescribed for him, for such submission (refer 2.16);
- His/her thesis is rejected by the examiners;
- His/her thesis does not receive unanimous final verdict from the examiners as required in clauses 8.30 or 8.32 of academic regulation.
- He/ she receives final grade as „unacceptable‟ in Thesis.
Of the above seven stipulations, the first four, specify the intermediate steps necessitating monitoring for
a student before submission of his/her thesis. This monitoring is to be done by the DRC. The last three
stipulations specify the events after the submission of the thesis and its examination by the appointed
examiners. In these cases, the student will be discontinued from the programme. However, he may
appeal to the Dean ARD for reinstatement giving full exposition and justification for the appeal. If the
Dean ARD, decides to reinstate such a student, it will give clear instructions and conditions, consistent
with overall spirit of the academic regulations that the student must fulfil after reinstatement. The verdict
of the Dean ARD shall be final
Fee waiver, Scholarship and leave rules
All students have to pay tuition and other fee as mentioned in Institute Bulletin. A part of tuition fees may
be waived for a „Full Time‟ and „Part Time‟ Ph. D students of the Institute. Depending upon availability,fellowship stipend from Institute or sponsored project may be provided to the selected students. A Ph. D. student may also avail his own fellowship from other funding agencies such as CSIR/UGC,etc.
Leave
Each “Full- Time” candidate is eligible for 30 days of vacation and 15 days of casual leave in an academic
year (August to July). Special casual leave of 15 days is permissible for attending
conferences/workshop/symposiums/training programmes, etc. For female candidates, maternity leave of
90 days is permitted.