PATNA, June 3 -- In a major decision to clean up the process of awarding PhD degrees in Bihar, Governor Lt Gen (Rtd) Syed Ata Hasnain has prohibiting the state universities from conducting their own entrance tests for admission and mandatorily adopt UGC-NET score as the basis for admission to PhD programmes. "In the light of the March 2024 UGC-NET Review Committee the directions of the Chancellor it is hereby directed that no university in Bihar shall advertise or conduct Ph.D. Admission Tests (PAT) for the academic sessions 2024 and 2025," said the letter from Dipak Kumar Singh, additional chief secretary to the Governor. "Universities which have already completed admissions to Ph.D. programmes through PAT (2024/2025) may continue to run such programmes, without disturbing the admitted batches. However, those Universities which have already issued advertisements for Ph.D. admission through PAT but have not yet conducted the examination, or are in the process of initiating such admissions, are directed to immediately roll back such advertisements and revoke the ongoing process and refund the application fee," said the letter, issued on Tuesday. It has also asked the universities that in case of roll back, the fee, if taken from the candidates, be returned and suitably amend the admission process to ensure that UGC-NET score is used as the eligibility and selection criterion in place of PAT," said the letter. "All Universities shall ensure strict compliance with the above directions and submit a compliance report to the Chancellor's Secretariat at the earliest. Non-compliance shall be viewed seriously," Singh has written The move is significant as in Bihar PhDs are produced in large numbers, but they are rarely uploaded on the Shodhganga repository within 30 days of the successful completion of the evaluation process and questions are often raised on their quality. "Yet, all PhDs are treated at par to award marks in a sweeping manner, in total disregard to quality, the institutions from which thy have been done, their reputation etc. A doctorate from category-1 institution and one from category-3 or uncategorised institutions are treated equally. Besides, PhD is a full time course, which cannot and should not be given on platter," said Shankar Dutt, former head of English department at Patna University. Many academicians have also appreciated the ongoing reforms process initiated by the Chancellor's secretariat to restore sanity in higher education. During the 2015 recruitment of assistant professors, NET/CSIR was the minimum criteria for appointment of assistant professors, while for PhD, adherence to the UGC regulation, 2009 was made mandatory. As none of the state universities conformed to it then, this led to rejection of Bihar doctorates and led to a lot of uproar despite a comparatively cleaner process. However, ahead of 2020 Assembly election the government revived the Bihar State University Service Commission it had itself dissolved in 2007 and diluted the provisions of 2020. The process is still on in 2026, with a range of controversies surrounding it....