New Delhi: PhD has been made mandatory for recruitment of teachers in universities from 2021-22 and cracking the National Eligibility Test (NET) would not be accepted as the only eligibility criteria, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said today.

However, masters degree with NET or PhD would continue to be the minimum eligibility criteria for direct recruitment in colleges, a senior official said.

Currently, those who hold PhD degree or are NET qualified with masters degree are eligible to apply for assistant professor, the entry level position, in universities.

Announcing the new regulations of the University Grants Commission (UGC), Javadekar said Academic Performance Indicators (API), which was resisted by many as research was made compulsory for college teachers, has been scrapped so that they could focus on teaching students.

"The whole effort is to improve quality of higher education and to attract and retain the best talent in the country. All the incentives of earlier regulations have been maintained, but the API for college teachers has been removed.

"Now college teachers would not have to mandatorily do research but will have to essentially concentrate and give better education to undergraduate students," he told reporters here.

The Union minister said teaching outcomes would be considered for promotion and if a teacher does research work, it would attract additional points for promotion.

"The new recruitment for universities will be only PhD holders. We have given time of three years. So from 2021, assistant professor (entry level position) will have to hold PhDs, Javadekar said.

The minister said Indian students who got their PhD degree from top 500 universities abroad will also be eligible for appointment in universities. Currently, such students are not eligible to take up teaching jobs in the Indian universities.

According to the new regulations, he said for the first time provision for promotion in colleges will be up to professor level.

The regulations also mandate newly recruited teachers in universities and colleges to undergo one month compulsory induction programme, Javadekar said.