Part-Time Ph.D. Programme at a glance

All provisions as mentioned in the Academic Regulation and explained in the document Overview of  Ph D programme, are applicable to candidates admitted under Part Time Ph D scheme.

Introduction

Candidates, who are working in reputed research organizations, academic Institutes and industries, situated preferably in the close vicinity of one of the campuses of BITS Pilani, are eligible to apply for admission in "part-Time" Ph D programme. They will choose one of the BITS faculty of respective campus as supervisor. Not all departments  BITS Pilani, will admit 'Part-time' students. Kindly visit the website of respective department for detail.

1. Eligibility Criteria 

• The candidate should be working in an organization which encourages and facilitates research.
• He/she meets the requisite minimum qualification for admission to Ph. D programme of BITS Pilani.
• The candidate should have a minimum of one year work experience in related field.
• The candidate should furnish a "consent & No objection certificate" from his/her parent organization in the attached format.

2. Input Qualifications

• M.E/M.Pharm./MBA/ M.Phil of BITS or its equivalent with a minimum of 60% aggregate.
• Candidate with an M Sc/B.E or an equivalent with a minimum of 60% will also be considered for provisional admission to the Ph D programme.
• For Ph D programme in languages and humanities, candidates with an M.Phil/M.A. and with minimum of 55% aggregate may also be considered. Such candidates have to undergo a minimum of two semester course work prescribed by DRC.

3. Selection Process

Each academic department will conduct written test/ interview or both for the shortlisted candidate as per requirement. The candidate will have to appear for admission test in the campus that has short-listed them.  The list of the selected candidate will be announced by admission office. The candidate will be provisionally admitted after completing admission process. Two member Doctoral Advisory Committee (DAC) is appointed for each admitted candidate by the Department Research Committee (DRC) for guidance and monitoring.

4. Course Requirement

Students will be required to attend classes and appear for evaluation components in order to complete the courses as required for the Ph. D. programme. All existing academic regulations will be applicable to part-time Ph D students, unless specifically mentioned otherwise.

5. Registration

All the candidates have to register in every semester till the submission of his/her thesis. In the beginning of each semester, all the candidates will sign the registration card confirming their registration for the semester. This card indicates the courses in which he/she is being registered in that particular semester.
Registration of candidates will be done by Academic Registration and Counseling (ARC) Division on the day of registration. Semester fee and all other dues are to be cleared before registration in each semester.

6. Assigning Notional supervisor and DAC members

Department Research Committee (DRC) will appoint a notional supervisor and two member Doctoral Advisory Committee (DAC) for each admitted candidate for guidance and monitoring.

7. Ph. D. Qualifying Examination

All student provisionally admitted to Ph.D. must clear Ph D qualifying examination. Each student in consultation with his/her notional supervisor, will choose two sub areas; from the list of qualifying examination areas of each department. One of these must be the sub-discipline in which he/she proposes to undertake research. Candidate has to clear both the sub area in order to qualify.

8. Topic of Research and Supervisor

Once a student clears Ph D qualifying examination, he/she, in consultation with his/her notional supervisor and the DAC members will decide upon the topic, the co-supervisor (if required), and prepare and submit a research proposal to Departmental Research Committee.

9.  Duration of Ph. D. programme

A student must submit his thesis within ten semesters (excluding summer terms) to be counted from the semester next to passing the qualifying examination. If the student fails to submit his thesis within stipulated period he may request the respective DRC for extension of time. Such extension for submission of thesis are limited to a maximum of four semesters. Thus, the duration for submitting final thesis (including all extensions and semester withdrawals) are limited to 14 semesters.  If a candidate fails to submit his/her final thesis during this period, he/she will be discontinued from the programme. The female candidates who have availed maternity leave during this period may be given one extra semester for thesis submission

10. Pre-submission draft and Seminar

On completion of research, the Ph.D. student will prepare a draft thesis, and will submit two copies of the same to DRC for preliminary but detailed assessment by DAC members.  After assessment, the candidate will give pre-submission seminar in the department where DAC, DRC and other faculty members and students may also be invited. The exact title of the Thesis is also discussed at the time of pre-submission seminar. After the pre-submission seminar, candidate will submit a request for title approval to DRC, for title approval in the required format. The proposed title of the Ph.D. thesis is then approved by the DCC

11. Thesis submission

The candidate can submit his/her Ph.D. thesis once the draft thesis has been approved by the DAC and his title is approved by DCC. Thesis along with synopsis and relevant documents are to be submitted to Convener, DRC. The DRC will also finalize a list of 6 to 8 potential thesis examiners, based on a list of examiners submitted by supervisor in the required format.

Together with (i) the thesis, (ii) the synopsis, (iii) the reports of the DAC members, (iv) the list of potential examiners, (v) other related documents, the DRC will recommend to the Dean, ARD through the campus-based Associate Dean that the evaluation of the thesis may begin.
Semester-wise Registration Programme for Off-campus Candidates (Ph D Aspirants) admitted after clearing qualifying examination

 

Note: It is assumed that the topic of research, locale of research work and supervisor are approved by the Research Board in the First semester of admission.

12. Fee structure: (For the academic year 2014-15)
 

 

 * The above prescribed semester fees is for student admitted in the academic year 2014-15. For these students, the semester, term, and admission fees will be revised upward every year, but will not increase beyond 15% each year (unless the government announces any new levy/tax, which will be passed on to all existing students irrespective of their year of entry.

Format for obtaining “Consent & No objection certificate " from employer (To be submitted on official stationary of organization along with application form)

This is to certify that Mr/Ms.............................................. is working in our organization as.................................................since.............................  The Organization has no objection if  Mr/Ms.................... ........................ is admitted to part-time Ph D programme of BITS Pilani.  The organization will grant leave as and when required and all necessary facilities to the employee in order to complete all components of Ph D programme.

Date:  Signature of Head of the organization with Seal