The University offers the Ph.D. programmes in the following 12 disciplines:

•   Sciences: Biotechnology, Botany, Chemistry, Computer Science, Physics
•   Humanities and Social Sciences: Commerce/Management, Communication, Economics, Political Science, Social Work.
•   Languages: English, Kannada.

1. Only those staff with confirmed service at SJU will be recognized as Ph.D. supervisors.
2. The SJU staff must have at least two publications either as the first author or as the corresponding author after one’s Ph.D. degree awarded.
3. Only the research articles (not review or conference proceedings) published in SCIE, SSCI, AHCI, SCOPUS are considered. It is to be noted that the UGC care listed journals are considered only for Indian Languages.
4. Articles published in the predatory journals, even though listed in Scopus/WoS are not considered.
5. Those staff facing allegations of ethical misconduct are not considered.

1. Full-time scholars are expected to complete the programme in 3 years. A one -year extension may be allowed subject to the recommendation of the PMC.
2. Part-time scholars are expected to complete the programme in 4 years. A one -year extension may be allowed, subject to the recommendation of the PMC.

The candidate who is admitted to the Ph.D. programme will be assigned a supervisor from a pre-approved panel of supervisors in each discipline by the PMC, subject to ratification of the same by the Dean of Research. The maximum number of Ph.D. scholars registered un-der a supervisor at a given time is subject to UGC guidelines.

The University shall have a provision of a stand-by supervisor, who would take-over as the supervisor in case the originally assigned supervisor leaves the University or is unavailable due to any other eventuality.

A co-supervisor can be appointed if the project envisaged requires expertise from multiple disciplines. This can be done with permission from the research supervisor and the relevant PMCs.

The University encourages multi/interdisciplinary research. The discipline in which the de-gree will be awarded and the PMC to which he/she would report would be the same as the discipline in which the scholar had obtained his/her masters, if more than 75% of the work carried out by the scholar falls within the scope of this discipline according to the PMC. In case the work cuts across two or more disciplines with no clear-cut majority discipline, the degree will be awarded under the respective faculty (Faculty of Sciences / Social Sciences / Arts & Humanities / Commerce & Management) without specifying the discipline. In case the work cuts across two or more Faculties, the degree will mention only the title of the doc-toral thesis.

1. The Ph.D. programme shall consist of mandatory coursework, pre-doctoral collo-quium on the research proposal and doctoral research in that order. Duration of the coursework shall be six months, which shall be part of the overall normal duration (three years) of the programme. The Ph.D. coursework shall be of sixteen (16) credits.
2. The coursework shall consist of 5 papers - Research Methodology (4 Credits), Ped-agogy: Teaching, Learning and Evaluation (2 Credits); Discipline-specific paper (4 Credits); Project-specific paper (4 Credits); and Seminar (2 Credits).
3. The coursework will require mandatory attendance of 85% and the students will be evaluated through Continuous Internal Assessment (CIA) and an End of the Course Examination (ECE). The final result for the coursework will be on a weightage of 50% each for CIA and ECE with a minimum pass score of 50% each in CIA and ECE, and 55 % in aggregate.
4. The ECE and its evaluation will be conducted by the Research Centre in collaboration with the Controller of Examinations.
5. Upon the successful completion of the coursework with the required marks/grade, the candidate will be issued a marks card and a Coursework Completion Certificate (CCC).
6. Candidates who fail in the coursework examination will be asked to reappear for ex-amination after a period of 30 days or in exceptional circumstances will be asked to repeat the entire coursework.
7. In the event a candidate is unsuccessful in passing the coursework examinations even after the supplementary then he/she will be asked to discontinue the programme.
8. In cases where admission could not be finalised because of failure to meet coursework requirements, the candidates will forfeit the fees already paid.

Full-time Ph.D. scholars who possess NET-JRF qualification will receive the fellowship from UGC/CSIR.

A full-time Ph.D. scholar who does not receive a fellowship under the NET-JRF will be eli-gible for a University fellowship of Rs.12,000- per month for a period of 2 ½ years (i.e., from the date of completion of coursework).

After successful completion of the coursework, the scholar chooses his/her research prob-lem (topic) and compiles a synopsis that presents a brief introduction to the topic, extant knowledge in the field of enquiry, the scope for further exploration, working hypothesis and objectives, methodology to be followed and the timeline. This synopsis is presented before the Doctoral Committee (DC), suggestions, if any, from the DC are incorporated and the re-vised version is submitted to the PMC for approval.

1. The scholar should present a progress report twice a year, in the last week of June and the first week of January.
2. The progress report should clearly state the progress made in terms of literature search/ review, data collection, data analysis, publication, conference presentation, and any other relevant details in the six-month period under evaluation.
3. The progress should be presented to the DC and its advice and suggestions should be included in the report before submission.
4. PMC would go through the report and accept / reject based on the quantum of pro-gress made by the scholar.
5. In case the report is rejected by the PMC, the scholar is expected to present the re-vised version of the same within a month.
6. Two successive rejections of the progress report will entail disqualification of the candidate.

1. Work of two and a half years from the date of passing the Ph.D. coursework for full-time scholars and three and a half years from the date of passing the Ph.D. course-work for part-time scholars should be put in before submission of thesis synopsis.
2. The following must be fulfilled before the submission of Ph.D. thesis synopsis:
   1. All fee dues should have been cleared by the scholar.
   2. All the previous half yearly reports of the scholar should have been approved by the PMC.
   3. The scholar should have published TWO research articles SCIE, SSCI, AHCI or SCOPUS. It is to be noted that the UGC CARE listed journals are accepted only for Indian languages and not for any subjects. Journals discontinued from Sco-pus and WoS are not considered.
   4. Only research articles (not conference proceedings even though listed in Sco-pus/WoS) are considered. Articles found in predatory journals (even though listed in Scopus/WoS) are not considered.
   5. The scholar should have presented TWO papers in recognized Internation-al/National Conferences. In lieu of this, the scholar may produce an additional SCI/SSCI/SCOPUS journal publication.

1. Once the candidate/scholar fulfils the requirements for submitting the thesis, he/she compiles a synopsis which describes the content of the thesis briefly.
2. The synopsis is presented to the DC, and after its approval, presented to the academic community of the University through a colloquium. The critical comments and sugges-tions from the audience should be addressed by the scholar and the modified synopsis submitted to the PMC for approval.

1. Once the PMC approves the thesis synopsis, the scholar is given six months to prepare his/her thesis and submit it to SJRIC. Under extraordinary circumstances the scholar may take an additional THREE months subject to approval by the Dean of Research. A fee shall be charged for the extension of the date for thesis submission.
2. The format of the thesis and the relevant certification pages that should be included in the thesis are displayed on the SJU webpage.
3. TWO hardbound copies of the thesis along with a soft copy (.pdf) of the same should be submitted to SJRIC.

1. The Ph.D. thesis submitted by a research scholar shall be evaluated by his/her research supervisor and at least two external examiners, who are experts in the field and not in employment of the University. Examiners should be academicians with a good record of scholarly publications in the field. The two external examiners, may be from India, at least one of whom must be from a State/UT outside Karnataka. Where required, a dis-tinguished academician, not below the rank of professor or equivalent, from outside In-dia may be chosen as one of the external examiners. The viva-voce examination based primarily on the critiques given in the evaluation report shall be conducted by the re-search supervisor and at least one of the two external examiners. It shall be open to the members of the Research Advisory Committee (RAC), all faculty of the University, re-search scholars and other interested students.
2. The viva-voce of the research scholar to defend the thesis shall be conducted only if the evaluation reports of the examiners on the thesis recommend acceptance. If one of the evaluation reports recommends rejection, the University shall send the thesis to an al-ternate examiner (from the approved panel of examiners) and the viva-voce examina-tion shall be held only if the report of the alternate examiner recommends acceptance. If the report of the alternate examiner also recommends rejection, the thesis shall be re-jected, and the research scholar shall be declared ineligible for the award of the degree.
3. The University shall develop appropriate methods so as to complete the entire process of evaluation of Ph.D. thesis within a period of three months from the date of submis-sion of the thesis.

1. A scholar may ask for a change of the supervisor during the course of the programme if:
   1. The supervisor is not available to the scholar
   2. There is irreparable personal animosity between the scholar and super-visor
   3. The expertise of the supervisor is unsuitable for the problem chosen by the scholar.
2. In any such circumstances, the scholar shall apply to the PMC for a change of supervisor, citing reasons.
3. The PMC, in consultation with the supervisor, may allot a new supervisor if it finds the claims of the scholar to be true. There will be a fee charged for change of supervisor.

1. A scholar will be allowed to change the title of his/her thesis mid-course if recommended by the DC and approved by the PMC.
2. A fee shall be charged for the change of title.

1. A scholar will be allowed to change the set of objectives mid-course if rec-ommended by the DC and approved by the PMC and ratified by the Dean of Research.
2. A fee shall be charged for the change of objectives.

1. The Research Advisory Council (RAC) is headed by the Vice Chancellor. In his absence, his nominee would serve as the chair.
2. The Dean of Research will oversee the functioning of the council.
3. Apart from the above individuals, the council consists of a team of research scientists, four professors (based on API) on rotation basis, and external ex-perts.

1. The Ph.D. Monitoring Committee (PMC) shall be constituted for each disci-pline.
2. The senior most professor in the discipline is the Chairman of the Com-mittee. In case there is no professors available in the discipline, a profes-sor from a related discipline would act as the Chair. All eligible guides in the discipline are members. If the total number of members is less than five, external experts would be made members so as to bring the total number of members to five.
3. The committee shall meet once in six months.
4. The committee shall assess the progress report of the Ph.D. scholars and de-clare their acceptance/rejection/revision.
5. In addition, the PMC will also have the following responsibilities:
   1. Designing the discipline-wise coursework paper and approving super-visor/project-specific course-work papers.
   2. Allotment of supervisor/co-supervisor to each selected scholar.
   3. Review and approval of the Progress Reports of the scholars recom-mended by the DC.
   4. Approval of examiners for discipline-wise coursework paper and su-pervisor/project-specific coursework papers.
   5. Approval of examiners for the thesis evaluation and viva-voce exami-nation.
   6. Recommendation (to the Dean of Research) regarding continuation of supervision by retiring/discontinuing faculty and/or change of super-visor under exceptional circumstances.

1. The Doctoral Committee (DC) will be constituted by the Supervisor in consultation with the Dean of Research. The main task of the committee is to mentor the scholar, ensuring quality of the project.
2. The DC is constituted for each candidate pursuing doctoral studies. The DC is headed by the supervisor and comprises one or two external experts. The DC would convene once every six months and assess the candidate’s progress based on his/her detailed presentation.
3. The responsibilities of the DC include monitoring the progress of the scholar, advising course corrections/necessary training and approving all documents prior to their submission to PMC.