Dear Sir/Madam, UGC in 2009 introduced new Ph. D. guidelines with much tout, after (lately) realizing that some of the Universities in Tamil Nadu and across other part of the nation that Ph. Ds were virtually sold. The UGC (Minimum Standards and Procedure for Awards of M Phil/Ph.D. Degree) Regulation, 2009, introduced entrance exam and course work for Ph. D aspirants. One of the mottos of the introduction of Ph. D. entrance exam and course work is to improve the quality of Ph. D. Based on the marks obtained in entrance exams Ph. D. candidates are admitted to pursue Ph. D. degree in their choice of subject domain. The entrance exam and the subsequent interview of the candidate for Ph.D. has also received lot of flak from academia and students as well. There were instances of admitting candidates for Ph D. program, who were not secured the required marks (in some cases, the candidates who have scored less marks than his counterpart have given chances for joining Ph Ds). Let this aside. Let me come to the point of why the Ph. D. course work introduced by the UGC would not yield the result which was intended. This may seem it is too early to examine the outcome of the Ph. D. course work introduced by the UGC. But already the sign of losing its sheen is evident. If we go through the syllabus (advanced research methodology) introduced for course work in many universities, would not help for Ph. D. scholars to help in formulating research problems or questions. Many of the universities (for example, University of Mysore) in India, for many years teaching advanced research methodology at the postgraduate level as a core paper or elective in either third or fourth semester, the same syllabus with little modification is taught at the M. Phil level as well. Now the same syllabus (advanced research methodology) is introduced for Ph. D. course work. Would this help Ph. D. students to formulate research questions or hypothesis on their own? Why so much of duplications and repetitions? Advanced research methodology help students for doing research step by step, or help in selecting and using type of research tools and technique and hypothesis testing with some statistical application, initially it may not sufficient for Ph D student to come up with research problems. It is a great opportunity for universities to introduce course syllabus which would help research scholars to come up on their own with research problems or titles for Ph Ds. In recent times, there are lots of postings in LIS forum for seeking suggestions for selecting titles for Ph. Ds or information and also for further information on the subject which they are going to research. It is not wrong to seek suggestion from collective intelligence like LIS forum, but there is always an element of doubt, why some of us are using LIS Forum for legitimating our research titles. If “Information seeking behavior pattern of media specialists” would anyway change the course of the research if someone select the title “information seeking behavior pattern of Legal professionals”( I have used these two titles as examples, just because of these titles were posted in LIS forum. No other personal interest involved in it). If universities introduce, for example classic books (S.R. Ranganthan’s works, works of J. A. Shera, and others of similar stature) in library and information science to read and prepare term paper (as in the US or other western country) would help in understanding theoretical underpinnings. Some books on critical theory (for example, Thomas Kuhn’s Structure of Scientific Revolutions) also help students to see things from different perspective. Later, they can be introduced to advanced research methodology from which they learn and apply to their research work. There is a need to build a strong theoretical foundation at the initial stage of research with appropriate course work/syllabus. There is a need to ease the burden of faculty also, in many universities across Karnataka as an example, each faculty in every department is guiding almost 8 to 9 Ph D. students. Are we turning universities as G.S. Radhakrishna of the Telegraph once put it in a column “Doctorate Shop”? (views are personal) ------------------------- With best wishes Vasantha Raju N -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.