Hospitality given to external expert of Ph D viva to be curbed: VC

Aurangabad, Oct 17:

Vice-chancellor of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University (Bamu) Dr Pramod Yeole has geared up to curb hospitality being given to external referee of Ph D viva voce.

It may be noted that the external referee is called as an expert for final Ph D viva, out of university jurisdiction, or State or country depending upon guidelines of each university.

It has become a trend to provide hospitality to the referees in universities, including Bamu. The referee is given fare of flight, private taxi for visiting the venue of viva and sightseeing of the city.

An incident of demanding Rs 60,000 from a research student in BAMU by a faculty dean has tarnished image of the university. VC Dr Pramod Yeole took the matter serious and decided to put a check on hospitality practice. Talking to this newspaper, the vice-chancellor said that Ph D research should be qualitative henceforth and it should be useful for public welfare, industry, agriculture and other fields.

“Any irregularity in the research process and maligning the image of the university would not be tolerated,” he said. He informed this newspaper that a committee would be set up after undergraduate and postgraduate courses examination to improve all the Ph D process.

VC Dr Yeole hinted at making all the process online from research stages to viva voce schedule, the reason for delay if any. After demanding money case, the university made some regulations like viva date should be given within 15 days from receiving a report from subject experts.