The University Grants Commission (UGC) has instituted the ‘PhD Excellence Citation’ to recognise and reward exceptional research annually across various disciplines.

The annual award is aimed at recognising outstanding PhD scholars across various disciplines, including sciences, engineering, social sciences, and Indian languages. Each year, ten citations will be granted, highlighting research that demonstrates originality, a significant contribution to knowledge, robust methodology, clarity, impact, and effective presentation.

The selection process will be rigorous, UGC said, comprising a two-tier evaluation: a university-level screening committee and a final selection committee at the UGC level. This approach seeks to identify and honor researchers of the highest quality.

A recent UGC study highlights an increasing trend in PhD admissions, with numbers doubling from 77,798 in 2010-11 to 1,61,412 in 2017-18 — an annual growth rate of approximately 10 per cent. The distribution of awarded PhDs reflects the popularity of specific fields: sciences lead with 30 per cent, followed by engineering and technology at 26 per cent, social sciences at 12 per cent, Indian languages at 6 per cent, management and education at 5 per cent each, agricultural sciences at 4 per cent, medical sciences at 5 per cent, commerce at 3 per cent, and foreign languages at 3 per cent.

This initiative by the UGC aims to encourage high-quality research output in Indian universities and bring recognition to scholars across a diverse array of academic fields. Every university may nominate up to five theses in a year, one from each of the five disciplines, from the PhD degrees awarded through a convocation from January 1 to December 31 of the previous year. UGC will felicitate the winners of the PhD Excellence award on September 5 commemorating the Teacher’s Day.