New research activities at Delhi University

Delhi University (DU) has come up with a range of schemes to boost its research activities. Madan Mohan, dean, research, Delhi University, explains,
“Though funding for research in Indian universities has improved considerably in the last decade or so, there is a dearth of research motivation. This can be attributed to the fact that policies and guidelines for research have not been in tune with the times. Hence DU, as one of the leading universities, is taking initiatives to attract and sustain the best talent in research.”

To encourage research in the domain of biotechnology, medicine and law, DU has introduced a scheme where students with a BTech, LLB or MBBS can directly pursue a PhD. “One does not necessarily have to pursue a Master’s to register for a PhD,” says Mohan. However, to avail of this scheme, a BTech student should have 70 per cent in the final aggregate, coupled with a good Graduate Aptitude Test (GATE) percentile score. For LLB students, the qualifying requisite is 60 per cent in the final aggregate.

“Students who meet this criterion will further be interviewed by the university’s Department Research Committee (DRC). Based on its decision, selected candidates can join the PhD programme,” informs Mohan. This scheme, novel to DU, is applicable to students from across universities in India.

Some of the other initiatives include extending university teaching assistanceships to deserving research candidates, introduction of the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) cell and patent fund to help researchers cope with publication charges of their papers or to patent their work.