Doing a PhD in the English literature will no longer be a cakewalk in Delhi University as the English department of the university has set time limit for submission of the research paper. Earlier, scholars took 10 years at times to complete their research. With the new PhD rules brought in by head of the department Sumanyu Satpathy, a PhD scholar has to submit their paper in four-and-a-half years. To facilitate the same, Satpathy has set up a committee of supervisors and also allotted two advisors per scholar.
Earlier, the Faculty of Arts at Delhi University was famous for its MPhil due to the structure of the programme. However, Satpathy said that with the recent changes even the PhD is at par. “It has been our endeavour to enhance the doctoral degree in English at DU and give it equivalent credibility as the MPhil programme. Earlier people used to take several years to complete their PhDs which would be a big waste of time and resources. We have now limited the time duration to four-and-a-half years and subsequently given scholars that additional support in the form of two supervisors from the newly formed committee and two additional advisors,” added Satpathy.
These changes have come with the recent restructuring of both the MPhil and PhD programmes in the department. Additionally, an MPhil student can now directly enroll in the PhD programme before completing their MPhil in the first semester, provided they meet the eligibility criteria.