Dikhyaa Mohanty 
PhD has been made mandatory for recruitment of teachers in universities from 2021-22 and cracking the National Eligibility Test (NET) would not be accepted as the only eligibility criteria.
According to the reports, the rule which was introduced in 2018 will be implemented this year. Currently, those who hold a PhD degree or are NET qualified with a master’s degree are eligible to apply for assistant professor, the entry-level position, in universities.
In 2018, these new regulations of the University Grants Commission (UGC) were announced by then Union Minister Prakash Javadekar. He stated that the new recruitment for universities will be only PhD holders and they have given time of three years. So from 2021, an assistant professors (entry-level position) will have to hold PhDs.
He further stated that the whole effort is to improve the quality of higher education and to attract and retain the best talent in the country. All the incentives of earlier regulations have been maintained, but the API for college teachers has been removed. Now college teachers would not have to mandatorily do research but will have to essentially concentrate and give better education to undergraduate students.
