National Institute of Design Doctor of Philosophy Ordinance, 2020: Classification, Duration, Eligibility criteria, Procedure for admission, Evaluation and Assessment Methods etc.
NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF DESIGN, AHMEDABAD
NOTIFICATION
Ahmedabad, the 26th August, 2020
F. No. P-24024/11/2018-IPR-V.—In exercise of the powers conferred by section 30 read with section 31 of the National Institute of Design Act, 2014 (18 of 2014), the Senate of the Institute had resolved and hereby makes the following Ordinance, namely:-
1. Short title and commencement. – (1) This Ordinance may be called the National Institute of Design Doctor of Philosophy Ordinance, 2020.
- (2) They shall be deemed to have come into force on the 1st December, 2017.
2. Definitions.–(1) In this Ordinance unless the context otherwise requires,-
a. “Act” means the National Institute of Design Act, 2014 (18 of 2014);
b. “coursework” means the courses of study prescribed to be undertaken by a Research Scholar registered for the Doctor of Philosophy programme;
c. “Doctoral Advisory Committee” means the Doctoral Advisory Committee constituted under ordinance 11 of this Ordinance;
d. “Research Committee” means the Research Committee constituted under ordinance 9 of this Ordinance;
e. “Research Scholar” means a person registered for the Doctor of Philosophy programme under the provisions of this Ordinance;
(2) The words and expressions used herein but not defined and defined in the Act shall have the meanings respectively assigned to them in that Act.
3. Doctor of Philosophy programme.–
(1) The Doctor of Philosophy programme and its governing rules and regulations are formulated by the Senate of the Institute.
(2) The Senate may modify or change the structure, the governing rules and regulations regarding the Doctor of Philosophy programme from time to time.
(3) A Research Scholar to be awarded the Doctor of Philosophy degree has to submit a thesis embodying the findings of his research carried out under this programme.
(4) The thesis shall make an original contribution of high quality to the advancement of knowledge as judged by the experts in the relevant area.
(5) A candidate becomes eligible for the award of the Doctor of Philosophy degree after fulfilling all the academic requirements prescribed by the Senate.
(6) The award of the Doctor of Philosophy degree shall be made upon the recommendation of the Senate after ratification by the Board of Governors of the Institute.
(7) On successful completion of the research programme, Doctor of Philosophy degree shall be awarded by the Institute
4. Classification of programme. – (1) The Doctor of Philosophy programme shall be classified into full-time and part-time.
(2) The following shall be full-time Research Scholar, namely:–
(a) Research Scholar with full fellowship;
(b) Research Scholar sponsored by Industry, Government and recognised non-Governmental organisations who shall not be eligible for any financial support from the Institute;
(c) Foreign nationals with Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) Awardees Fellowship Awardees who are sponsored by their respective Governments and awarded a scholarship by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations shall apply for admission through Indian Embassy in their respective countries;
(d) Foreign nationals who are self-financed shall be granted admission through the Embassy of the respective Governments after approval of the Ministry of External Affairs and a no objection certificate from the concerned Ministry of the Central Government;
(3) The following shall be part-time Research Scholar, namely:–
(a) faculty or staff of the Institute who are permanent employees of the Institute or Institute campus, as the case may be, shall be eligible for admission to the Doctor of Philosophy programme;
(b) persons working in academia or industry or research organisation who are unable to pursue the full time doctoral programme in residence, for personal or professional reasons;
(c) individual sponsored on part time basis by industry or institution.
5. Duration of the programme.–(1) The Doctor of Philosophy programme for full-time research scholars shall be for a period of three years including course work and a maximum of five years:
Provided that the female candidates and persons with disability of more than 40 per cent. may be allowed relaxation of two years in the maximum duration:
Provided further that a full time Research Scholar may be allowed to take maternity leave or child care leave up to 240 days once in the entire duration of the programme.
(2) The Research Scholar who is not able to complete the full-time programme within three years may seek extension up to two years.
(3) The Doctor of Philosophy programme for part-time research scholars shall be for a period of five years including course work and a maximum of seven years:
Provided that the female candidates and persons with disability of more than 40 percent may be allowed relaxation of two years in the maximum duration:
Provided further that a part time Research Scholar may be allowed to take maternity leave or child care leave upto 240 days once in the entire duration of the programme.
(4) The Research Scholar who is not able to complete the part-time programme within five years may seek extension up to two years.
6. Eligibility criteria for admission to the Doctor of Philosophy programme.–(1) The following shall be the minimum eligibility for admission to the Doctor of Philosophy programme, namely:-
Master’s degree in Design from an accredited institution or recognised University or Post Graduate Diploma Programme in Design from the National Institute of Design or Advanced Entry Programme or fivefive and a half year School Leavers’ Professional Education Programme Diploma in Design from the National Institute of Design;
or
Master’s degree in Architecture or Fine Arts or Applied Arts from a recognised institution or University with 55 per cent. marks in aggregate or its equivalent grade ‘B’ in the UGC 7 point scale or an equivalent grade in a point scale wherever grading system is followed or an equivalent foreign degree from a foreign educational institution accredited by an assessment and accreditation agency which is approved, recognised or authorised by an authority established or incorporated under a law in its home country or any statutory authority in that country for the purpose of assessing accrediting or assuring quality and standards of educational institutions and having a graduate or post graduate degree, in Design;
or
Bachelor’s degree in Design from National Institute of Design or National Institute of Design’s Graduate Diploma Programme in Design with three years’ of professional or teaching experience or both;
or
four and a half year School Leavers’ Professional Education Programme Diploma in Design with three years of professional or teaching experience or both;
or
Master’ s degree in Philosophy (in Design) with 55 per cent. marks in aggregate or its equivalent grade ‘B’ in the UGC 7 point scale or an equivalent grade in a point scale wherever grading system is followed or an equivalent foreign degree from a foreign educational institution accredited by an assessment and accreditation agency which is approved, recognised or authorised by an authority established or incorporated under a law in its home country or any statutory authority in that country for the purpose of assessing accrediting or assuring quality and standards of educational institutions;
or
individuals who have successfully completed a Faculty Development Programme in Design having two years or more duration from the National Institute of Design or any other recognised University;
or
Foreign nationals or Indian nationals with degree from a foreign University subject to equivalence of their educational qualifications with the Master’s degree in Design from an accredited institution or recognised University or Post Graduate Diploma Programme in Design from the National Institute of Design of Advanced Entry Programme or five-year School Leavers’ Professional Education Programme Diploma in Design from the National Institute of Design.
7. Application for admission.–(1) The candidate shall apply for admission to the Doctor of Philosophy programme in the form available from the Institute or it can be downloaded from the Institute’s website.
(2) In case the application form is downloaded from the website of the Institute, the applicant shall remit the fee for the application form in the manner stipulated by the Institute from time to time.
8. Procedure for admission.–
(1) The Institute shall notify the admissions to the Doctor of Philosophy programme in the public domain on its website and other online resources.
(2) The advertisement shall specify the number of seats for admission, criteria for admission, procedure for admission, examination centres where entrance tests shall be conducted and all other relevant information for the benefit of the candidate.
(3) The Institute shall follow the reservation policy of the Government of India, as prescribed from time to time.
(4) The applicant to the Doctor of Philosophy programme shall be required to submit a research proposal in two to three thousand words.
(5) The applicant who is scheduled to complete the final year of the qualifying examinations and is awaiting result, shall also be eligible to apply for admission to the Doctor of Philosophy programme, and in such cases, the admission shall be provisional and confirmation of admission shall be subject to successful completion of the qualifying examination.
(6) The research proposal submitted by the applicant under clause (4) of the ordinance shall be screened by the Research Committee and shall be primarily assessed on merit, analytical framework, research priorities and the relevance of the proposal to the broad theme of design.
(7) The selection shall be made through an entrance test namely, Design Research Test with qualifying marks as 60 per cent. and on the basis of the design aptitude and research abilities, general awareness, basic numeric and design abilities:
Provided that design professionals with more than fifteen years of experience shall be exempted from the Design Research Test.
(8) The entrance test shall be conducted at the centre notified in advance.
(9) The applicant who qualifies the Design Research Test shall be required to appear for an interview before the Selection Committee on a date notified in advance.
(10) The Selection Committee shall consist of the following members, namely:–
(a) one member of the Research Committee, to be appointed by the Research Committee as Chairperson;
(b) Head, Doctor of Philosophy programme, ex-officio;
(c) two faculty members of the grade of Principal Designer or Principal Faculty or Senior Designer or Senior Faculty, nominated by the Research Committee;
(d) one external expert from academia or industry to be nominated by the Research Committee;
(11) The interview shall consider the following aspects, namely:–
(a) competence of the candidates for the proposed research;
(b) whether the proposed research work can be suitably undertaken at the Institute or the Institute campus;
(c) whether the proposed research work is in alignment with Institute’s research priorities;
(d) whether the proposed area of research can contribute to new or additional knowledge i.e. subject area or topic of the research proposal;
(e) delivery and presentation.
(12) The final list of selected candidates shall be published on the website of the Institute.
9. Research Committee.–(1) The Doctor of Philosophy programme shall be coordinated and monitored by the Research Committee, duly constituted for this purpose by the Senate.
(2) The Research Committee shall consist of the following members, namely:–
(a) Chairperson, Education, as Chairperson ex-officio;
(b) Chairperson, Research and Publications, ex-officio;
(c) four members of the faculty, to be nominated by the Senate, of the grade of Principal Designer or Principal Faculty or Senior Designer or Senior Faculty of the Institute and the members shall not be teaching the same course available at the Institute;
(d) Head, Doctor of Philosophy programme ex-officio, as Member-Secretary.
(3) The term of members, other than the ex-officio members, of the Research Committee shall be two years:
Provided that the tenure of a member may be extended by two terms.
(4) The Chairperson may co-opt any other member or expert either from the Institute or from other academia or industry, for specialised domain knowledge.
10. Functions of the Research Committee.- The Research Committee shall, with respect to the Doctor of Philosophy programme, provide for:
(a) notifications for annual plan for the intake of candidates;
(b) arrangements for the Design Research Test and the subsequent interview and such other tests as may be specified by the Senate of the Institute for admission to the Doctor of Philosophy programme;
(c) recognition, selection and allocation of guides to the candidates;
(d) setting up of the Doctoral Advisory Committee for each candidate, in consultation with the Guide;
(e) determination of pedagogy and structure for taught courses and periodic reviews;
(f) all matters concerning the conduct and ethics of the Doctor of Philosophy programme.
11. Doctoral Advisory Committee. – (1) The Research Committee shall, in consultation with the assigned Guide, constitute a Doctoral Advisory Committee for each candidate enrolled in the Doctor of Philosophy programme.
(2) The Doctoral Advisory Committee shall consist of the following members, namely:–
(a) the Guide of the Research Scholar shall be the Chairperson of the Advisory Committee;
(b) one Principal Designer or Principal Faculty or Senior Designer or Senior Faculty from the Institute, to be appointed by the Research Committee;
(c) one external advisor from academia or industry, with expertise in the relevant domain, to be nominated by the Research Committee from among three such experts to be proposed by the Guide.
12. Functions of the Doctoral Advisory Committee.– (1) The functions of the Doctoral Advisory Committee shall be the following, namely:–
(a) to review the research proposal and finalise the topic of the research;
(b) to guide the Research Scholar to develop the study design and methodology of research;
(c) to periodically review and assist in the progress of the research work of the Research Scholar.
(2) The Research Scholar shall mandatorily appear before the Doctoral Advisory Committee once in six months to make a presentation of the progress of his work for evaluation and further guidance.
(3) The Research Scholar shall submit a six monthly progress report to the Institute with a copy to the Guide.
(4) In case the progress of the Research Scholar is unsatisfactory, the Doctoral Advisory Committee shall record the reasons for the same and suggest corrective measures.
(5) If the Research Scholar fails to implement these corrective measures, the Doctoral Advisory Committee may recommend to the Institute with specific reasons for cancellation of the registration of the Research Scholar.
13. Guide.–(1) All regular faculty members at the Institute and its campuses in the grade of Principal Designer or Principal Faculty or Senior Designer or Senior Faculty shall be eligible to guide students or scholars for research.
(2) In case of topics which are of inter-disciplinary nature where the Research Committee feels that the expertise has to be supplemented from outside, the Research Committee may appoint a Guide from the Institute itself, who shall be known as the Guide, and a co-Guide from outside the Institute who is a recognised expert or professional agreed upon by the consenting Institution or College.
(3) In case of employee of the Institute being a Research Scholar, the Guide shall be selected from a recognised panel of experts from outside the Institute with the approval from the Research Committee and in such cases, there shall be a co-Guide from the Institute.
(4) The allocation of Guide for a selected Research Scholar shall be decided by the Research Committee concerned depending on the number of Research Scholars per Guide, the available specialisation among the Guides and research interests of the scholars as indicated by them at the time of interview.
(5) At any given point of time a Guide cannot guide more than three Research Scholars.
(6) If the Guide is not available to the Research Scholar due to illness, long leave for a duration of one year, resignation, retirement or death, the Research Committee shall appoint a Caretaker-Guide.
(7) The roles and responsibilities of the Guide shall be decided by the Senate from time to time.
14. Course work.–(1) The credit assigned Doctor of Philosophy course work shall be a minimum of eight credits and a maximum of sixteen credits.
(2) The Research Scholar admitted to the Doctor of Philosophy programme shall be required to complete the course work prescribed by the Department as per the curriculum flowchart of the programme.
(3) The Research Scholar already holding Master of Philosophy in Design degree and admitted to the Doctor of Philosophy programme, or those who have already completed the course work in Master of Philosophy and have been permitted to proceed to the Doctor of Philosophy, may be exempted by the Department from the Doctor of Philosophy course work.
(4) All other candidates admitted to the Doctor of Philosophy programme shall be required to complete the course work prescribed by the Department.
(5) The grades in the course work, including research methodology courses shall be finalised after a combined assessment by the Advisory Committee and the Research Committee and the final grades shall be communicated to the Institute.
(6) A Research Scholar has to obtain a minimum cumulative grade point average as per the credit and evaluation system of the Institute in order to be eligible to continue in the programme and submit the thesis.
15. Evaluation and Assessment Methods, minimum standards or credits for award of the degree, etc.–(1)
Upon satisfactory completion of course work, and obtaining the marks or grade prescribed in clause (6) of ordinance 14, as the case may be, the Research Scholar shall be required to undertake research work and produce a draft thesis of minimum sixty thousand words along with a creative outcome within a reasonable
time, as stipulated by the Institute based on these ordinance.
(2) Prior to the submission of the thesis, the Research Scholar shall make a presentation in the Institute in before the Advisory Committee which shall also be open to all faculty members and other Research Scholars.
(3) The feedback and comments obtained during the presentation may be suitably incorporated into the draft thesis in consultation with the Advisory Committee.
(4) The Research Scholar must publish two research papers in refereed journal, and produce evidence for the same in the form of presentation certificates or reprints and for practice- based research, outcomes in the form of prototypes, collections, exhibitions, films, and so on may be considered instead of the paper where applicable.
(5) The Institute shall ensure availability of well developed software and gadgets to detect plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty.
(6) While submitting for evaluation, the thesis, of minimum sixty thousand words, shall have an undertaking from the Research Scholar and a certificate from the Guide attesting to the originality of the work, vouching that there is no plagiarism and that the work has not been submitted for the award of any other degree or diploma of the same Institute where the work was carried out, or to any other Institution.
(7) The thesis submitted by a Research Scholar shall be evaluated by his Guide and two external examiners, who are not in employment of the Institute or Institute campus.
(8) The viva-voce examination, based among other things, on the critiques given in the evaluation report, shall be conducted by the Guide and one of the two external examiners, and shall be open to be attended by Members of the Advisory Committee, all faculty members of the Institute, other Research Scholars and other interested experts or researchers.
(9) The public viva-voce or defence of the Research Scholar to defend the thesis shall be conducted only if the evaluation report of the external examiners on the thesis is satisfactory and include a specific recommendation for conducting the viva-voce examination.
(10) If the evaluation report of the external examiner in case of thesis, is unsatisfactory and does not recommend viva-voce, the Institute shall send the thesis to another external examiner out of the approved panel of examiners and the viva-voce examination shall be held only if the report of the latest examiner is satisfactory.
(11) If the report of the latest examiner is also unsatisfactory, the thesis shall be rejected and the Research Scholar shall be declared ineligible for the award of the degree.
(12) The Institute shall develop appropriate methods so as to complete the entire process of evaluation of thesis within a period of six months from the date of submission of the thesis.
16. Attendance.–A Research Scholar whether full-time or part-time must attend at least eighty percent of the lectures delivered in all courses, individually.
17. Leave.-(1) A full-time Research Scholar shall be entitled to fifteen working days leave, inclusive of leave on medical grounds, for each six-month semester in a year:
Provided that leave which has not been availed shall be carried forward to the next semester.
(2) A Research Scholar may be allowed extraordinary leave of absence up to two semesters on ground on an emergency, subject to the recommendation of the Guide.
(3) If a Research Scholar is absent, on account of being present at other institutions in India or overseas for the purpose of research towards his fulfilment of the Doctor of Philosophy programme, a leave to that effect may be granted subject to the consideration and approval of the Guide.
(4) A full time Research Scholar who may remain absent for a period of four weeks or more consecutively during a semester without the permission of the Guide may lose his stipend.
(5) If the absence of Research Scholar is for a duration of six months without the permission of the Institute, the registration of the Research Scholar shall be cancelled.
(6) A Research Scholar may avail of leave to attend or participate to present papers in conferences or seminars in India and overseas with the permission of the Guide.
(7) A full time Research Scholar may be allowed to take maternity leave with stipend upto 240 days once in the entire duration of the programme and this period shall not be counted in the total duration for submission of the thesis for the programme.
(8) A full time Research Scholar shall be entitled to a single paternity leave with stipend for a month in the entire duration of the programme and this period shall not be counted in the total duration for submission of the thesis for the programme.
18. Issuance of Doctor of Philosophy (Design).–(1) Upon successful completion of evaluation process, Research Scholar shall be awarded a degree in Doctor of Philosophy (Design).
(2) Prior to the actual award of the degree, the Institute shall issue a provisional certificate to the effect that the degree has been awarded in accordance with the Ordinance.
PRAVEEN NAHAR, Director
[ADVT.–III/4/Exty./201/2020–21]
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