Ph.D students suffer due to lack of fund

Mumbai: The Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D) students enrolled in various institutes across the city are unable to manage their research work due to lack of funds, which they get from the government bodies.

A Ph.D student has to score more than 70 per cent in the National Eligibility Test (NET), which works as an entrance exam for them to avail the Junior Research Fellowship (JRF). Through this, a student gets a stipend of Rs 25,000 along with the house rent allowance (HRA).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had issued instructions stating that the research institutes should self-raise 30 per cent funds they require. Hence, they had cut the funding by half, which led to the closure of three research centres at Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS).

The students claim that in order to manage their expenses and research activities, they have to look for jobs. “If we look for a job, either the salary is too less or it is not manageable as the timings may affect clash with our classes,” said a Ph.D student, who did not wished to be named.

Every institute allows its Ph.D student to work inside the institute to earn money. Jobs like Assistant Professor or working on an ongoing project are preferred but pay less.

“If we start doing any kind compromise in our research work due to money constraints, it will directly affect our research outcome. The government should understand this,” said another student.

“We get our funds from University Grands Commission (UGC) as we don’t have any relation with the Ministry of Human Recourse and Development (MHRD) unlike other institutes like IIT-Bombay who are directly funded by MHRD. But, currently UGC too is falling short of money,” said a higher official at TISS.