PhD in health sciences in Delhi

Which Delhi routes are open to you without a NET or JRF?

The first thing to settle is whether you have a NET or JRF. Without one, AIIMS, GGSIPU’s PET, Jamia Hamdard and a handful of ILBS seats are your routes. With one, DU and the ICMR institutes open up as well; at AIIMS a fellowship adds weightage for non-medical candidates, and at ILBS it saves you the written test. The fellowship itself is a separate question, covered in our PhD fellowships guide. If your interest is public health from the social-science side, JNU’s social medicine centre and the other routes on our social sciences in Delhi page may suit you better.

How does the AIIMS New Delhi PhD entrance work?

AIIMS awards its own PhD under the AIIMS Act, and runs admission twice a year through its examination section. The January 2025 call opened on 23 January 2025; the July 2026 call opened on 28 April 2026, with the test on 23 May and joining by 31 July. The computer-based test is held only at centres in Delhi and the NCR, and selection runs in three stages:

1. 1

   Stage I: aptitude (30 marks)

   30 questions in 40 minutes on English, biostatistics, research methodology, cell biology and lab technology.

2. 2

   Stage II: subject (40 marks)

   40 questions in 50 minutes at the level of an M.D., M.S., M.D.S. or M.Sc. entrance. A wrong answer costs a third of a mark.

3. 3

   Cut-off and special weightage

   You need 35 of 70 to go further. Ten marks are then added for a medical degree or M.Sc. Nursing, or, for non-medical candidates, a qualifying national fellowship.

4. 4

   Stage III: department assessment (20 marks)

   Three candidates per advertised seat are called. The July 2026 assessment was held online on 10 and 11 June.

5. 5

   Final merit

   You need 50 out of 100 overall. Seats are then allotted in merit order within the department you applied to.

Eligibility is not a general master’s degree. Each seat is tied to a project with its own list of accepted degrees, and the prospectus says plainly that no claim of equivalence will be entertained. An Anaesthesiology seat in July 2026, for instance, wanted an M.A. in Psychology or Clinical Psychology and GATE or NET. Doctors are eligible with an MBBS or BDS of 55%, or an M.D., M.S., M.D.S., D.M. or M.Ch. in the subject concerned; non-medical applicants need 60%; and M.Sc. Nursing holders with 55% can apply for the College of Nursing. Master’s degrees by distance learning are not accepted, and you can apply to three departments at most.

The fee was ₹2,000 (₹1,600 for SC, ST and EWS; PwBD candidates exempt). The programme is strictly full-time with no private practice, you get 30 days’ leave a year, and registration runs from three to five years.

What is the difference between a funded seat and an own-fellowship seat at AIIMS?

This is where many AIIMS applicants go wrong. Of the 73 seats in July 2026, 28 were “Funds Available” (FA) seats, paid from a project, and 45 were “Own Fellowship” (OF) seats, open only to candidates who bring their own money. Biotechnology had the most seats, but only 2 of its 9 were funded, and all 4 in microbiology were OF seats.

• With your own government fellowship, you may choose between OF and FA seats. That means a CSIR-UGC NET JRF, ICMR-JRF, DBT-JRF or NBHM award, with the result declared between July 2024 and May 2026 and the award letter (not just a pass certificate) uploaded with the form.
• In-service or sponsored candidates whose employer keeps paying their salary also qualify for OF seats. Government, PSU and autonomous-body employees must upload an employer NOC, or they cannot sit the test at all.
• Without either, you can compete only for FA seats.

Even after selection, the Academic Section issues a selection letter only when your funding is confirmed through the head of department. So if you are a non-medical postgraduate without a JRF, look closely at the FA seats in your subject before paying the fee.

Where are DU’s medical PhD seats, college by college?

DU’s Faculty of Medical Sciences spreads its PhD seats across the medical and dental colleges and institutes attached to the university, and the 2025–26 Bulletin of Information lists the Phase I seats college by college. That list tells you where you would actually work:

• Dental science: 20 seats, 18 at the Maulana Azad Institute of Dental Sciences and 2 at UCMS.
• Microbiology: 13 seats, 9 of them at the Vallabhbhai Patel Chest Institute, with 2 each at UCMS and MAMC.
• Community medicine: 6 seats, at MAMC (4) and UCMS (2).
• Forensic medicine and radiology: 4 each at Lady Hardinge Medical College.
• Pathology, physiology and pharmacology: small numbers at VPCI; surgery: 2 at G.B. Pant (GIPMER).

Admission follows DU’s NET-based process (70% NET score, 30% interview), and most departments want a research proposal with the registration. Eligibility is set department by department. Community medicine accepts an M.Sc. in statistics or a master’s in health economics, but only with a DU-recognised co-supervisor in biostatistics or health economics. Pharmacology’s committee, noting that few medical graduates score 75%, set 55% as the MBBS or BDS minimum. The bulletin does not exempt M.D. or M.S. holders from the NET requirement, so a doctor without NET should ask the department before applying. DU’s dates and phases are on our Delhi admission page.

Where can nurses and pharmacists do a PhD in Delhi?

Nurses have three routes we could confirm. ILBS’s 2026 advertisement offered a part-time PhD in Nursing: five seats, five years, for M.Sc. Nursing holders with 60% and three years’ work experience, with an entrance on 23 June 2026 and the course from 1 July. It is the only route on this page advertised as part-time from the start. AIIMS takes M.Sc. Nursing holders with 55% for PhD in its College of Nursing, through the same entrance as doctors, when a nursing seat is advertised. And Jamia Hamdard’s Rufaida College of Nursing lists a PhD in Nursing, admitted through the university’s own test.

Pharmacists will find the widest choice at Jamia Hamdard, whose School of Pharmaceutical Education and Research offers PhDs in pharmaceutics, pharmaceutical chemistry, pharmacology (including pharmacy practice) and pharmacognosy, and a PhD in pharmaceutical medicine run with Sun Pharmaceutical Industries. For its Cycle-II of 2025–26 a GPAT or NET qualification exempted pharmacy applicants from the test. GGSIPU’s Centre of Excellence in Pharmaceutical Sciences admits M.Pharm. and allied M.Sc. holders who pass the PET or hold GATE, GPAT or NET.

Physiotherapists and occupational therapists can apply to GGSIPU’s medical school, whose 2026–27 brochure lists PhDs in both, alongside sports medicine and clinical subjects from anatomy to neonatology. It also says M.D., M.S. and D.M. holders are eligible even when their pass certificates show no percentage. Jamia Millia Islamia’s Centre for Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation Sciences held PhD interviews in July 2026 under Jamia’s own entrance.

How do ILBS in Vasant Kunj and NIMR in Dwarka pick PhD scholars?

At ILBS, you need at least a GATE, NET or GPAT for most seats. For July 2026 the molecular and cellular medicine PhD had 10 seats for GATE, NET or GPAT candidates with a JRF and 5 for those without one (NET categories 2 and 3), whose fellowship comes from project funds. Hepatology and the epidemiology of viral hepatitis had one seat each. You need 60% in a biological-science master’s or a professional degree such as MBBS, M.Pharm. or M.V.Sc. The molecular medicine seats are open only to GATE, NET or GPAT qualifiers, who go straight to the interview; for the two other seats, JRF holders are interviewed directly and the rest sit the written test. Applications closed on 26 May 2026, and ILBS’s result notice shows the entrance was held on 7 and 8 June.

At ICMR-NIMR, a JRF is required. The malaria institute at Dwarka says on its research and training page that PhD candidates need a life-science master’s and a NET JRF from CSIR-UGC, ICMR or DBT, and that AcSIR awards the degree. It takes applications through the year and charges no course fee of its own, though AcSIR’s registration fee applies and no housing is provided. AcSIR also runs a national call through its ICMR Faculty of Medical Research; the August 2026 round, covering 28 ICMR institutes, closed on 14 April 2026.

Whichever route you take, clinical or animal work needs ethics committee approval before it starts, and the committee will want a defensible sample size. Our sample size guide helps with that part.