New education policy to strip M.Phil. requirement

After the release of the National Education Policy last week, there seems to be major reforms in the Indian education system coming our way. One of the most important being scraping off the requirement of an M.Phil. degree. The draft stated the change in the duration of a Bachelor’s degree from three years to four years also.

While an M.Phil. degree is done after Masters and includes part theory, part research according to your institute and the course you have opted for, this will surely come about as a major change. Since the M.Phil. is being scraped off, the committee has proposed the syllabus for Masters to be more research oriented to pave way for people to pursue a Ph.D.

The implementation of this policy will require master’s students to do dissertations and thesis work too. The committee headed by scientist K. Kasturirangan stated that a student who has opted for Bachelor’s with research can also opt for a one-year master’s degree instead of the typical two-year course.

This policy is likely to impact India’s research sector massively. M.Phil. is still a very popular course in India with about 30-40 seats allotted in major colleges per course for students.

Researchers and M.Phil. scholars alike expressed their views on the topic stating that the M.Phil. typically helps students decide which area they want to complete their Ph.D. in or whether they want to do a Ph.D. at all. If the requirements for Masters change towards a more research inclined field, then it wouldn’t pose much of a problem but if the syllabus for masters continues to be as theoretical as today then students will not receive the clarity they need to opt for a befitting Ph.D.

The question does remain that if this recommendation is implemented in the near future then what will an M.Phil. degree held before this change account for and how will college education altogether be affected by this system.

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