Dear LIS Professionals,
I have gone through all the comments regarding part-time research. Undoubtedly, such a debate is welcoming one. Only thing I like to point out here that we must be careful in using the language. It should not hurt the feelings of others, whether they are in favour or against of part-time research. The aim of research is not only to earn a Ph.D degree. One may carry out research not merely for obtaining a Ph.D degree but for the purpose of advancing the frontiers of knowledge. We can cite a good number of contributions of LIS professionals in this direction in India and abroad. These contributions have the qualities that deserve our respect, attention and admiration. The contents of LIS have been enriched by these contributions. In respect of Ph D in LIS, personally I feel that the scope of part-time research for LIS professionals should be there since the LIS is an applied discipline and the LIS professional can find out the answer(s) to the research question(s) they faced while practicing the profession. This, in turn, will enrich the different facets of LIS. In this context, I like to draw the attention of our LIS professionals to the following fact:
Emanating from the consensus emerged in the National Conference of Vice-Chancellors, organised by the UGC on 10-11 October, 2007, Prof. Sukhadeo Thorat, Chairman, UGC in a letter D.O.No.F.1-2/2008 (XI Plan) dated January 31, 2008 addressed to the Vice-Chancellor urged upon all the universities to initiate the process of implementing academic reforms as incorporated in the 11th Plan of the UGC. In regard to the M.Phil and Ph.D degrees, it has been stated in the said letter that “the M.Phil and Ph.D programmes need to be made formal. Admission to these programmes should be based on combined merit of entrance examination and interviews conducted by the respective universities. The informal methods currently used in some universities for admission to Ph.D. need to be discontinued and the admission methods to these high level research courses should be made formal and transparent. There is a need to introduce course work in Ph.D, rather than making it only dissertation/thesis based”. With the receipt of this letter, many universities are toying with the idea of discontinuation of part-time Ph.D work and introduction of the course-based full-time Ph.D work.
With greetings,
Professor J. K. Sarkhel
Dept of Library & Information Science
University of Kalyani
Kalyani-741235
West Bengal; India
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