University of Mumbai PhD thesis format

What does the University of Mumbai prescribe for PhD thesis format?

Almost everything is in two clauses. R.PhD.18 is “Guidelines for the Ph.D. Thesis” and R.PhD.19 is “Submission of final Thesis” (printed pages 21 and 22). What they fix is given in the table.

Cite this data: PhD Desk, “University of Mumbai PhD thesis format”, last reviewed 1 November 2026, https://phddesk.in/guides/thesis-format-mumbai-university

Scholars coming from our SPPU thesis format guide will see a big difference. The Pune ordinance fixes A4 paper, the spacing, the binding margin and the cover colour also. Mumbai fixes none of these things. How the page looks is left to your Research Centre and your guide. Practically it means the format sheet your department has been giving to scholars for many years.

Ask your Research Centre for that format sheet in the first week of writing itself, not when the binding shop is already waiting. If the centre has no sheet, you can follow what most Indian theses use. That is 12-point Times New Roman at 1.5 spacing, about one and a half inch free on the binding edge and one inch on the other three sides. Please remember this is only convention. Anybody saying it is a University of Mumbai rule, you just ask them to show you the circular.

What must a Mumbai PhD thesis contain?

R.PhD.18(1) wants “a carefully drafted and rigorously checked document”. The content rules it lays down are given one by one.

Certificates and undertaking

At the time of evaluation the thesis must already have your undertaking and your supervisor’s certificate in it. As per R.PhD.19(1) both of them confirm that the work is original and has no plagiarism. They also confirm that it was never used before for any degree, diploma or other award at Mumbai or at any other institution. R.PhD.31 adds one more point. In your undertaking you mention that a plagiarism detection tool approved by the institution was used for checking the document. The regulations give no wording and no position for these pages. Keep them before the contents page, and if your Research Centre has a template, use that.

Bibliography and data sources

R.PhD.18(2) and 19(2) both ask for “a detailed bibliography and data sources”. Which citation style to use is not mentioned. Take the style normally followed in your discipline and apply it the same way in every chapter. Where a chapter has joint work, R.PhD.18(2) also asks you to “clearly state the portion which is own contribution”.

Your publications, at the end

As per R.PhD.19(6), copies of your research papers or patents are placed at the end of the thesis, along with details of your conference or seminar presentations. As per R.PhD.17(4) whatever is in those papers should come inside the thesis chapters also, as integral part. Then 17(3) puts one more condition. A paper is counted only when you and your supervisor are both authors, and each of you is either first author or last author.

No dedication

Many scholars miss this rule. R.PhD.19(9) says the thesis “should not contain any dedication note”. R.PhD.26(2) repeats the same point and also says copyright is jointly with you, your guide and the university. Acknowledgements are allowed, and the similarity check even leaves them out. You can thank your parents in the acknowledgements.

No order of preliminary pages is given in the regulations, and no chapter scheme is given either. Most scholars just follow the common order, and that sequence is there in our thesis structure guide.

Can you write a Mumbai PhD thesis in Marathi or Hindi?

Yes, R.PhD.19(8) allows it in two cases.

• Language subjects. When your subject itself is a Modern European or Modern Indian language, or a classical language accepted by the university, you can write the thesis in that language. Marathi, Hindi, Gujarati, Sanskrit, Pali and Prakrit are named in the clause.
• Other subjects. Here you can use another Modern Indian language, provided the university accepts it as medium of instruction and examination for your subject. Prior permission of the RRC is needed, preferably within six months of registration. Even then the research proposal for topic approval stays in English, and one-tenth of the main contents of the final thesis has to be in English.

What exactly that English one-tenth should be, the clause does not say. It could be an extended summary or chapter abstracts or something else. Clear this doubt with your RRC at the time of applying, and get the answer written in the permission letter. In all other cases the thesis is in English.

What similarity level does the University of Mumbai accept?

The answer is up to 10%. R.PhD.31 (printed pages 36 to 41) takes its levels from the UGC’s 2018 plagiarism regulations, which it names among its reference documents. Clause 9.1 gives the levels for theses as below.

• Level 0, up to 10%: minor similarities, and no penalty.
• Level 1, above 10% to 40%: a revised script has to be submitted within a stipulated period, not more than six months.
• Level 2, above 40% to 60%: you are debarred for one year from submitting a revised script.
• Level 3, above 60%: the registration for the programme gets cancelled.

In the regulations these levels come as penalties, imposed by the Departmental and Institutional Academic Integrity Panels after misconduct gets established. Nowhere does it directly say that you cannot submit above 10%. Still, try to reach Level 0 before your report goes to the authority who signs it. For comparison with other universities, check the plagiarism limits guide.

What is excluded from the figure

Clause 5 of R.PhD.31 gives the list of things the check leaves out. Public domain quotes are not counted, nor material used with permission or attribution. Then the bibliography and references go out, with table of contents, preface and acknowledgements. Mathematical and chemical formulae are excluded, and names and addresses too. Generic terms, laws, standard symbols and equations are also not counted. Small matches below 1% are ignored, and so are common knowledge and coincidental terms up to fourteen consecutive words. Now see the other side of the same clause. Core of the work must be original and “shall not have any similarities”. By core it means the abstract, summary, hypothesis, observations, results, conclusions and recommendations.

There is one unusual item in the list. In a scholar’s thesis, any matter matching the scholar’s own published papers or patents is excluded. This is logical, because R.PhD.19(6) already puts those papers at the end of the thesis. When a chapter reuses one of your papers, cite that paper inside the chapter. Then whoever runs the check will know the match is from your own work.

Who runs the check

Your Research Centre does it, using software “prescribed by UGC / UoM from time to time” (R.PhD.19(3) and (4)). The regulations does not name any tool. An authority designated by the Head of the Research Centre signs the report and your supervisor countersigns it. Some centres are using DrillBit. If yours is one of them, our DrillBit guide explains how to read the report and which settings change the figure.

When and how do you submit the thesis at the University of Mumbai?

This order of steps comes from R.PhD.13 to R.PhD.19.

1. 1

   Finish course work

   Minimum 12 credits, with at least 55% or the equivalent grade, done before the final synopsis (R.PhD.13).

2. 2

   Publish and present

   You need one paper from the doctoral work in a Scopus, Web of Science or (where applicable) ABDC journal. With that, two conference or seminar presentations, or one presentation plus a published patent. All this must be done by the time the synopsis goes in (R.PhD.17(2)).

3. 3

   Pre-synopsis presentation

   Given before your RAC. Experts are invited from inside the Research Centre and from outside also (R.PhD.15(7)).

4. 4

   Submit the synopsis

   Preferably within one month of the presentation, and two months at the most. Three hard copies first and then one soft copy, through your supervisor, along with the fees (R.PhD.15(7) and 16(1)).

5. 5

   Submit the thesis

   Any time from two months to six months after the synopsis date. One hard copy and one soft copy on CD or pen drive, with the plagiarism certificate attached (R.PhD.19(3), (5) and (7)).

In Mumbai the pre-synopsis presentation does the job of a pre-submission seminar. To know what the committee checks, read the pre-submission seminar guide. For the synopsis, R.PhD.16(2) only says “as prescribed” and we did not find any format in the regulations. Your Research Centre will have it, so take it from them. The synopsis format guide covers what normally goes into a synopsis. Keep your title and proposal close to what the RRC approved. A major deviation from them means the RRC can ask you for a fresh synopsis (R.PhD.16(4)).

If you cross the six-month window, you have to apply for an extension with justification and pay the synopsis fee one more time (R.PhD.19(5)). How long that extension can be, the clause does not limit. The overall limit is six years from admission (R.PhD.3). With re-registration it can go to eight years, and for women and for scholars with a disability above 40% it can go up to ten. There is a minimum also. At least one year must pass between registration and thesis submission (R.PhD.12(4)).

Take one example (dates invented for illustration). Your synopsis is submitted on 15 February. Then 15 April is the earliest date for the thesis, and 15 August is the last date without an extension.

Look carefully at the publication rule. It names particular indexes only, which are Scopus, Web of Science and, where applicable, ABDC. A journal that is only in the UGC-CARE list is not mentioned. If you have doubt whether your paper will count, ask the RAPC before the synopsis goes in. After that it is late. For the UGC position, compare with our publication requirement guide.

What happens after you submit: referees, viva and Shodhganga

The internal referee is your supervisor. The university appoints two external referees, and the second one is from outside Maharashtra or outside India (R.PhD.21(2)). The whole process is in R.PhD.20 to 22. Each referee has 30 days to send the report. If one of them wants major modifications then you do the corrections, preferably within 12 months, and that same referee gets the revised thesis back. Only after both external referees and the internal referee recommend acceptance does the viva happen (R.PhD.22(9) and (12)). Six months is the time the regulations aim for the whole evaluation.

The viva-voce is an open defence held online. The external referee and the chairperson join online, and you sit with your supervisor at the Research Centre (R.PhD.23). First your supervisor presents the work for 20 to 30 minutes. After that you answer questions, including on the criticisms raised by referees (R.PhD.24(4)). For preparing that part, our viva questions guide will help.

Once the result is notified, one soft copy and one hard copy go to the University Library (R.PhD.26(1)). As per R.PhD.31, the university must send the soft copy to INFLIBNET for Shodhganga within one month of your being declared eligible for the degree. So the copy you submit is practically the copy the public is going to read. Our Shodhganga guide has more on this. Publishing the thesis as a book is allowed only after the degree is awarded at convocation (R.PhD.25(3)).

University of Mumbai PhD thesis checklist before submission

Every item here comes from the 2026 regulations. Font, spacing, margins and binding are missing from the list because the regulations do not set them. Your Research Centre’s format sheet decides those things.

• Your thesis is in English, or the language exception of R.PhD.19(8) covers you. In a non-language subject that means prior permission from the RRC and one-tenth of the main contents in English.
• The thesis has your undertaking and your supervisor’s certificate saying the work is original, free of plagiarism and not submitted earlier.
• The plagiarism check report is in the prescribed format, signed by the authority your Head of Research Centre named, and countersigned by your guide.
• Try to get the similarity figure to Level 0 (up to 10%) after the R.PhD.31 exclusions. The levels work as penalties and not as a bar on submission, but only Level 0 has no penalty at all.
• Copies of your papers or patents, and details of your presentations, are placed at the end of the thesis.
• Each paper you are depending on has you and your supervisor as authors, and each of you is first or last author.
• You have kept no dedication page.
• Where some part is joint work, you have mentioned which portion is yours.
• Minimum two months and maximum six months have gone by since the synopsis was submitted.
• One hard copy and a soft copy on CD or pen drive are ready to go through your supervisor.

After the centre gives its format, many scholars are finding it hard to make all chapters match it. Our thesis formatting service does the headings, numbering, tables and references. Your argument and findings are not touched.