MPhil not a 'recognised' degree, UGC warns students

New Delhi: The University Grants Commission on Wednesday sent out a communication reiterating that the MPhil is no longer a recognised degree, after, it said, it found some universities were inviting admissions for MPhil. The higher education body had declared the discontinuation of MPhils in June as per the University Grants Commission (Minimum Standards and Procedures for Award of Ph.D. Degree) Regulations, 2022. 

The UGC sent out a public notice to warn students about it. “It has come to the notice of the UGC that a few Universities are inviting fresh applications for M.Phil. (Master of Philosophy) program. In this regard, it is to bring to the notice that the M.Phil. degree is not a recognized degree. The Regulation No. 14 of the UGC (Minimum Standards and Procedures for Award of Ph.D. Degree) Regulations 2022 clearly states that Higher Educational Institutions shall not offer MPhil program,” the UGC said.

“It is informed that the UGC has framed the University Grants Commission (Minimum Standards and Procedures for Award of Ph.D. Degree) Regulations, 2022 which has been published in the Gazette of India on 7th November, 2022,” it added.

In June, the UGC formed a committee to take a relook at the nomenclature of degrees, which recommended that the nomenclature of the “MPhil” degree be discontinued from the list of specified degrees. Delhi University had discontinued MPhil degrees from the 2022-23 academic year. The committee had suggested that students should be awarded qualifications, whether it is a certificate, diploma or degree, as soon as they earned the required number of credits, irrespective of the minimum duration of the programme. 

The UGC, in its notice, also asked university authorities to take immediate steps to stop admissions to MPhil programmes for the 2023-24 academic year.