Is a PhD mandatory for assistant professor jobs?

What is the minimum qualification for assistant professor under UGC rules now?

The rule is inside a UGC regulation with a very long name. Its full title is the UGC (Minimum Qualifications for Appointment of Teachers and other Academic Staff in Universities and Colleges and other Measures for the Maintenance of Standards in Higher Education) Regulations, 2018. The change came through the 2nd Amendment Regulations, 2023. That notification carries the date 30 June 2023. It came in the Gazette on 4 July 2023, and it applies from 1 July 2023. Clause 3.10 was replaced with a single sentence, which says NET/SET/SLET is the minimum criterion for direct recruitment as assistant professor in all higher education institutions.

In simple terms, you need a master’s degree with 55% marks or above, and NET or an accredited SET/SLET. The 55% figure is from clause 3.4. The same clause allows 5% relaxation for SC, ST, OBC non-creamy layer and differently-abled candidates. The other routes are listed in clause 4.1, as below.

Scholars many times miss two limits here. First one is SET or SLET. It makes you eligible only for posts in universities and colleges of that state (clause 3.3(I)). The second is clause 1.1. It says that where a statutory body has norms for its own field, those norms prevail. Technical education, medicine, agriculture and teacher education are examples. So if you are applying to an engineering college, read the regulator’s norms and the advertisement also, not just the UGC text.

Remember these are only minimums. A university is free to ask for more in its advertisement. And selection committees mostly like PhD holders even for a post where a PhD is not needed.

When did the PhD stop being mandatory for assistant professor posts?

The 2018 regulations had a plan to make PhD compulsory for university posts, from a fixed date. That date got amended later. Then in 2023 UGC removed that clause fully and put the NET/SET/SLET minimum in its place.

Look carefully at what the original clause covered. As per the 2018 text, the PhD was mandatory for direct recruitment “in Universities” only. College posts never came under that clause at all.

The 2021 first amendment did not open for us on ugc.gov.in. For that reason we are not saying anything about it beyond what the 2023 notification records, which is that its version of clause 3.10 “stands deleted”. We keep these dates with their sources in our log of PhD rule changes.

What happened to the UGC draft regulations of January 2025?

A draft was released by the Union Education Minister on 6 January 2025. It is titled the UGC (Minimum Qualifications for Appointment and Promotion of Teachers and Academic Staff in Universities and Colleges and Measures for the Maintenance of Standards in Higher Education) Regulations, 2025. UGC put it in the public domain to get feedback. As per the Press Information Bureau release, the minister was expecting UGC to bring the final form “soon”.

The same release describes a few changes. You could teach the subject in which you cleared NET or SET, even when your earlier degrees were in some other subject. PhD specialisation would get priority. Shortlisting would shift from a score-based method to a wider assessment. All these are still proposals only. Till a final regulation is notified, none of them affects the rules of any recruitment.

So for now, the text that applies is the 2018 regulations along with the 2023 and 2024 amendments. Mostly the advertisement for a post mentions which rules that recruitment follows. Suppose the selection committee raises a doubt on your eligibility, you can show them that advertisement only.

Do PhD holders still need NET for assistant professor posts?

Usually not. The exemption comes from the first proviso to clause 3.3(I) of the 2018 regulations, and clause 4.1 repeats it. It applies when your PhD was awarded “in accordance with” the UGC PhD regulations of 2009 or 2016. In that case you don’t need NET/SET/SLET for assistant professor and equivalent posts in any university, college or institution.

For older PhDs the rule is different. If you registered for your PhD before 11 July 2009, you get the exemption only when all five conditions given below are met. Your university’s Registrar or Dean (Academic Affairs) has to certify them.

• the PhD was done in regular mode
• at least two external examiners evaluated the thesis
• there was an open viva voce
• the candidate published two research papers out of the PhD work, and at least one of them was in a refereed journal
• the candidate presented minimum two papers from the PhD work at conferences or seminars which UGC, ICSSR, CSIR or a similar agency sponsored, funded or supported.

What about a PhD under the 2022 regulations?

When the 2018 text was written, the UGC PhD Regulations, 2022 were not there. That is why it names only the 2009 and 2016 regulations. On ugc.gov.in we did not find any notification adding the 2022 regulations to this proviso. Clause 16 of the 2022 regulations helps a little, though. As per that clause, scholars who registered from 11 July 2009 till the 2022 notification are governed by the 2009 or 2016 regulations, as the case may be. So a lot of present PhD holders come under the named regulations anyway. If your registration was after November 2022 and you are depending on the exemption, ask to the university that is hiring, in writing, how it will treat your degree.

Neither set of regulations treats part-time PhDs separately. Many scholars are doing PhD part-time while working, and our part-time PhD guide covers how that mode runs.

Where does a PhD still count in a teaching career?

Getting shortlisted

For shortlisting candidates for interview, Appendix II of the 2018 regulations gives an academic score. In that score the PhD is the biggest single item, as the table shows.

For M.Phil. and PhD together the cap is 30 in universities and 25 in colleges. NET, JRF and SET together are capped at 7 or 10. Please read the note under clause 4.1 also. The score only decide who gets called for interview. After that, selection “shall be based only on the performance in the interview”. With a PhD you will get interview calls more often, but the final result depends on how the interview goes.

Moving up

• Senior scale sooner. In the Career Advancement Scheme, an assistant professor who has a PhD can go from Academic Level 10 to Level 11 after four years of service. Someone with an M.Phil. or a professional master’s degree needs five years. Without either, it is six years.
• Selection grade in universities. For promotion to assistant professor (Selection Grade, Academic Level 12) in universities, clause 3.9 makes the PhD mandatory.
• Associate professor and professor. You can’t be appointed or promoted to either post without a PhD, as per clauses 3.7 and 3.8.

API scores and the research score

The Academic Performance Indicator (API) system was part of the UGC’s 2010 regulations. In 2018 it was replaced by an annual performance grade and a research score (Appendix II, Table 2). Teachers who had qualified under the old rules got a choice in 2018. They could go for promotion as per the 2010 criteria or as per the 2018 criteria. The 3rd and 4th amendments kept extending that choice. In the 2024 version it is there for people who qualified by 31 December 2024. So today API is mainly relevant for that one group.

Inside the research score, a paper in a peer-reviewed or UGC-listed journal gets 8 points in sciences and engineering. For languages, humanities, social sciences and allied fields it gets 10. Every PhD scholar you guide to award earns you 10. Your own PhD doesn’t get points in this score. But without it you cannot be a guide at all, because the UGC PhD Regulations, 2022 require every research supervisor to hold a PhD (clause 6(1)).

This is why papers published during the PhD keep helping you later in the career. Your own university may ask for papers before thesis submission also, and our publication requirement guide lists what is mostly asked.

Should you clear NET first or finish the PhD?

Suppose you want an assistant professor post soon. Then clear NET, or the SET of your state if you plan to work in that state. As the rule stands now, NET is the one qualification that makes you eligible for UGC-governed posts anywhere in the country. From March 2024 a NET result can be used for PhD admission too. How that works for admission is there in our PhD admission guide.

Scholars who are already registered for a PhD should complete it. The PhD gives more shortlisting points than NET, and where the exemption applies you don’t need NET at all. In a university, without a PhD you will get stuck at Level 11. Some scholars are doing both together. For them, writing NET during coursework or soon after is a good time, since research methodology is still fresh in mind. Which one comes first is not a big issue. What you should avoid is leaving either of them half done for years.