SPPU (Savitribai Phule Pune University) PhD thesis format

What does SPPU prescribe for PhD thesis format?

All that SPPU fixes about how the thesis looks is in one clause, 10.12, on page 18 of the annexure. The clause is short, and the full content of it is in the table.

Cite this data: PhD Desk, “SPPU (Savitribai Phule Pune University) PhD thesis format”, last reviewed 1 November 2026, https://phddesk.in/guides/thesis-format-sppu

Some points in this list need a little more attention.

Both sides. Many binders in India are still printing theses on one side only, just out of habit. For SPPU that habit will not work, since the amended ordinance wants printing on both sides of the paper. Tell your binder this before the first page is printed.

Only the left margin is given. The ordinance gives 1.5 inches on the binding side and says nothing about top, bottom or right. When you print on both sides, the binding edge comes on the left for odd pages and on the right for even pages. So check with binder whether mirrored margins should be set in Word. Most Indian theses keep around 1 inch on the other sides. That is only common practice, and SPPU has not made it a rule.

“Whenever necessary”. The first line of clause 10.12 says the final thesis “shall be presented in accordance with the following specifications whenever necessary”. Our reading is that this refers to the printed copy, because a soft copy has no cover card. We do not take it as a licence to skip the list. Better not to test it with your thesis.

References. SPPU has no house style of its own. What clause 10.12(f) wants is whatever referencing style is standard in your own discipline, so APA for psychology and management, IEEE for engineering, and like that for other subjects. Fix one style with your guide and use it the same way for every entry.

What must go in the front pages of an SPPU thesis?

Four items are named for the front of the thesis, and they come from three clauses.

• Title page (10.12(e)). It carries the title, your name, the degree, your research supervisor’s name, the place of research, and the month and year of submission. The front cover has the same details. You may add a co-supervisor’s name on both.
• Your undertaking that there is no plagiarism, given as per UGC regulations (10.4(a)).
• Your supervisor’s certificate saying the thesis is original and has not been submitted for any degree or diploma anywhere else (10.4(b)). As per clause 10.4, both these papers “shall be part of the thesis and be included before Index page”.
• A certificate of the research supervisor and a declaration by you, stating that the work is your own and that material taken from other sources is acknowledged (10.14).

There is some overlap between clauses 10.4 and 10.14. One supervisor certificate and one candidate declaration can cover both, provided each one has the wording of both clauses. Ask your research centre if it keeps a template. Using that is easier than drafting your own from scratch.

For the remaining front pages the ordinance gives no order. That covers the abstract, acknowledgements, contents, lists of tables and figures, and abbreviations. Keep the certificates and declarations before the contents page, which the ordinance calls the “Index page”, and after that you can go in the usual order most theses use. Our thesis structure guide gives that sequence, and also how chapters are usually divided.

What similarity limit does SPPU accept?

At SPPU your similarity must come to 10% or below, nothing more than that. Clause 10.15 says it is “mandatory to check for plagiarism as per UGC regulations”. The result has to be “less than or equal to 10%”, and you must “submit the certificate for the same”.

No software is named in the ordinance. Clause 10.3 only asks each research centre to have “a mechanism using well-developed software applications to detect Plagiarism”. Many Indian universities are now using DrillBit, which INFLIBNET has been supplying through its ShodhShuddhi programme since October 2023. Still, confirm with your research centre or the Jayakar Library which tool they actually run. Also ask what exclusions they apply, like bibliography, quotes and small matches, because if one setting is changed, the same chapter can come out several points higher or lower. How to read the report is covered in our DrillBit guide.

Scholars mix up these three papers a lot, so here is which is which.

1. Your no-plagiarism undertaking, which is bound into the thesis (10.4(a)).
2. The originality certificate from your supervisor, also bound in (10.4(b)).
3. The certificate of the similarity check itself, which goes with the thesis at submission (10.15).

SPPU’s 10% is on the strict side. In some other universities a higher figure is allowed for certain sections or disciplines, and you can see them next to the UGC’s 2018 levels in the plagiarism limits guide. The ordinance says “as per UGC regulations”, so if you copy text from your own published paper into the thesis, that is self-plagiarism for them. So cite that paper in whichever chapter reuses it.

When can you submit the synopsis and thesis at SPPU?

This sequence is taken from clauses 2.1, 8.7 and 10.8 to 10.13 of the amended ordinance.

1. 1

   Finish course work

   Clear the course work with minimum 55% (or the equivalent grade on the UGC 10-point scale) within the first two years. Without it, the thesis cannot be submitted (clause 8.7).

2. 2

   Publish one paper

   You need at least one research paper in a Scopus or UGC-CARE listed journal, as per SPPU’s own publication guidelines (clause 10.10).

3. 3

   Pre-submission seminar

   It is held at least three months before you submit the thesis. The Head of your Place of Research arranges it on your request, and your supervisor endorses it. It cannot happen before 36 months from registration (clauses 2.1 and 10.8).

4. 4

   Submit the synopsis

   Give it within one month (thirty days) of the seminar, through your supervisor, to the P.G. Admission Section. Along with it, your supervisor sends the list of recommended referees (clauses 10.8(3) and 10.9).

5. 5

   Submit the thesis in soft copy

   Upload it online to the P.G. Admission Section, not before two months and not after six months from the synopsis. An acknowledgement from your supervisor and the Head of the Place of Research goes with it (clauses 10.9, 10.11 and 10.13).

6. 6

   Submit the hard copy

   This comes after you have made the changes the referees asked for, and before the viva (clause 10.13).

A few dates here are fixed. The synopsis cannot go in before 36 months from registration (10.8(1)), and clause 2.1 allows pre-PhD presentations only after three years. The synopsis should have an introduction, a brief chapter-wise account of the work and the overall conclusions. For drafting, you can take our synopsis format guide as a base. For the presentation part, use the pre-submission seminar guide.

On the fine, the two clauses are worded in a confusing way. Clause 10.8(4) permits late submission up to one year from the synopsis “or till the expiry of the registration period, whichever is earlier”, on paying “the prescribed fine”. Clause 10.9 then fixes that fine at ₹1,000 a month after six months, and says that after one year the synopsis has to be presented again. If you read both together there is no clash, but people forget the “whichever is earlier” part. Suppose your registration ends in month eight, then month eight is your last date. As per the same clause 10.8(4), a scholar who got extension has to give the synopsis one more time, and on the day you submit your registration should still be valid.

Take one example with made-up dates. Your synopsis goes in on 10 January. From 10 March till 10 July you can submit the thesis with no fine. From 10 July up to the next 10 January, you pay ₹1,000 every month. After that, you need a fresh synopsis.

Coming to publication, you need one paper in “Scopus, UGC CARE list journals” as clause 10.10 puts it, and on top of that SPPU has its own publication guidelines put up on the website. If you have doubts about what counts as a CARE-listed journal now, clear them with our UGC-CARE guide.

What happens after you submit an SPPU thesis?

The thesis is evaluated by your supervisor and at least three external examiners (10.5). These externals are experts not employed within SPPU’s jurisdiction, and wherever possible one of them is from outside Maharashtra or outside India. If at least two of the three recommend acceptance, after whatever corrections they want, the viva goes ahead. In case two of them say reject, SPPU will send it to two alternate examiners. If they also do not recommend it, it is rejected (10.6). SPPU says it will try to complete the full evaluation, viva result included, within six months of submission (10.7). Since they wrote “will try” only, six months is what they are aiming for, it is not a fixed deadline.

The viva can be online or offline, depending on what the university circular decides. At least fifteen days in advance, the Head of the Place of Research has to notify the day, time and place (11.1). Your supervisor, one external examiner and a chairperson make up the panel (11.2). The Research Advisory Committee, faculty, research scholars and other interested researchers are allowed to attend (10.5), so be ready for an audience.

After the evaluation, and before the degree is announced, the P.G. Admission Section sends the thesis online to SPPU’s Jayakar Library. The library prepares the metadata and sends the electronic copy to INFLIBNET, and INFLIBNET hosts it (18.1 and 18.2). This is the Shodhganga deposit, even though the ordinance does not mention that name. Clause 18.2 talks about the library getting the thesis “in the format suggested above”. That means the soft copy you submit is the one which becomes public. Our Shodhganga guide explains what this means for you.

What does the SPPU ordinance leave out?

For a thesis format, the gaps are many. Suppose someone says “SPPU requires Times New Roman 12”, ask them to show you the circular. Amended Ordinance 186 says nothing about the following points.

• font, font size and heading styles
• margins at the top, bottom and right
• a page count or word limit for the thesis
• how many hard copies to give (clause 10.13 says “the hard copy”, in singular)
• which language the thesis should be in
• page numbering, and the order of preliminary pages apart from “certificates before the index page”
• file format or file size of the soft copy, and the “prescribed format” mentioned in clause 10.11
• which plagiarism software to use, and its settings.

For all these points your research centre or department mostly follows some practice, and your guide will know it. Take their answer in writing, even an email is enough. That way the settings you agreed on are on record at the time of binding.

About older scholars. If you registered anytime from 11 July 2009 till the regulations were notified, clause 16 is the one for you. Their degrees, it says, are governed by the UGC 2009 regulations with Circular 217/2014, or by the UGC 2016 regulations with Circular 17/2017. The same clause then adds that candidates “already registered and pursuing Ph.D.” come under these regulations or the 2016 ones. From the text alone it is not clear which one applies to you. Ordinance 186 was first notified through Circular No. 113 of 2025 on 25 April 2025. If you registered before that date, write to the P.G. Admission Section and ask. For thesis format the difference is smaller than many scholars expect, and most will find it easiest to follow clause 10.12 anyway.

SPPU PhD thesis checklist before submission

Each item here comes from Amended Ordinance 186. For anything beyond this, your research centre decides.

• Printed on A4, on both sides, at 1.5 line spacing, and the left margin is 1.5 inches.
• The title page and front cover both show the title, your name, the degree, your supervisor’s name, the place of research, and the month and year of submission.
• The cover is black and hard-bound, on card of 330 GSM or below. On the spine, “Ph.D. thesis” comes at the top, then your name, then the month and year.
• Your plagiarism undertaking and the originality certificate from your supervisor are bound in before the index page.
• The thesis has the supervisor’s certificate and your declaration (that the work is done by you and other sources are acknowledged).
• Similarity in the check is 10% or less, and you have the certificate to show it.
• It is between two and six months since synopsis submission, or else the late fine is paid, and your registration is still valid.
• Every change the referees asked for is included in the hard copy.

If margins, page numbering and references need cleaning up before the pre-submission seminar, our thesis formatting service can do the layout part. Your argument and findings we leave as you wrote them.