PhD Rules and Guidelines at LPU

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) Rules

Procedure for Admission

Applications for the admission to Ph.D. Programme will be invited well in advance and will be made on the basis of LPUNEST (Ph.D.) test and interview. The admission will be subject to vacancy being available in the relevant specializations. The research scholar who qualify and have valid award letter of UGC / UGC-CSIR under category 1, Category2, Category3/ NFSC/ NFST/NFOBC/ NFPWD /valid GATE or GPAT score card are exempted from the LPUNEST (Ph.D.) entrance test. The final selection for admission in Ph.D. is based on the performance in Entrance Test (70% weightage) and Interview (30% weightage) for Non-Agriculture Ph.D. programmes and Entrance Test (80% weightage) and Interview (20% weightage) respectively for Agriculture Ph.D. programmes including Ph.D. in Food Technology, subject to scoring minimum marks in the Interview. However, if anyone is exempted from LPUNEST (Ph.D.) entrance test in lieu of above-mentioned tests, then 100% weightage will be given to Interview only.

    Note:
  • LPUNEST (Ph.D.) exam exemption is subject to verification of score card/award letter released by regulatory agency with valid dates. For example, a scholar might have qualified for GATE but the validity of the score is till 2024. So, he can’t use this GATE score for admission in the 2025 session.
  • For getting the LPUNEST scholarship, it is mandatory to appear and score good marks in the LPUNEST.

Ph.D. Candidacy and Monitoring Process

A Scholar will be given the Ph.D. Candidacy on completion of the following requirements:

  • Passing the Course Work.
  • Successfully defense of State-of-the-Art (SAS)* seminar.
  • *State-Of-the-Art (SAS) seminar delineates the current state of knowledge about the specific problem along with proposed research methodology on which the research scholars intends to pursue the research work.

After the research scholar is granted the Ph.D. Candidacy, he/ she will appear before the Research Advisory Committee once in six months to make a presentation of the progress of his/ her work for evaluation and further guidance.

Medium of Instruction

Unless otherwise specified by the University, the medium of instruction, course work, examination, question paper, State-Of-the-Art (SAS) and thesis will be English in all cases.

Thesis Evaluation

The Ph.D. thesis submitted by a research scholar will be evaluated by his/ her Research Supervisor and at least two external examiners who are not in employment of the Institution/ College, out of which one shall be from outside the Punjab.

Defense of Thesis and Announcement of Award of Ph.D. Degree

The public viva-voce of the research scholar to defend the thesis will be conducted only if the evaluation report(s) of the external examiner(s) on the thesis are satisfactory and include a specific recommendation for conducting the viva-voce examination. The research scholar will finally present the research work duly approved by the Oral Defense Board as per the schedule. The Oral Defense Board will examine the research scholar through a Seminar. The viva-voce examination of the research scholar for the Ph.D. will be openly defended where all the faculty members and Research Scholars will be invited. Based on the performance of the research scholar in the seminar and viva-voce, the Oral Defence Board will send its recommendations for the award of Ph.D. degree for approval by the Vice Chancellor. Along with the degree, the University will issue a provisional certificate certifying to the fact that the degree has been awarded in accordance with the provisions to the UGC Regulations 2022.