Admission to the PhD programmes shall be through an Entrance Examination conducted by the departments and the interview conducted by the Research Committees of the respective Departments. UGC –JRF and RGNF awardees as well as and regular teachers of Universities/Colleges with a minimum service of five years and who have published at least two research articles in approved journals are exempted from the Entrance Examination. Availability of approved guides, their willingness to guide on a specific research proposal and vacancy of seats shall be taken into account for granting admission. Admission to Ph.D. Programme shall be conducted only if the departments demand for it eachyear. The entrance examination will be conducted at Head Quarters, Kalady. (Entrance examination for Urdu will be held at RC, Koyilandy).

The Entrance Examination shall carry 100 marks. The candidates who secure 50% marks or above in the entrance examination alone will be qualified. Relaxation of 5% of marks (from 50% to 45%) shall be allowed for the candidates belonging of SC/ST/OBC (Non-creamy Layer)/ differently-abled category in the entrance examination conducted by the Universities. If inspiteof the above relaxation, the seats allotted for SC/ST/OBC (Non-creamy Layer) / Differently-abled categories remain unfilled, the Universities shall launch a Special Admission Drive, for that particular category within one month from the date of closure of admissions of General Category . The University will device its own admission procedure along with eligibility conditions to ensure that most of the seats under these categories are filled.

The candidates eligible for admission shall be selected by the Research Committees. Depending on the availability of seats, the required number of candidates from the ranked list may be invited for the interview by the Research Committee with their research proposals. The Research Committee may select the candidates subject to the feasibility of the research proposals submitted by the candidates and their performance at the interview.

The research proposal shall contain the following:

(a) A tentative title

(b) The objectives of the study

(c) The importance and relevance of the study

(d) A review of the earlier works done in the area of the proposed work, and,

(e) The details of methodology/theoretical framework.

The number of candidates to be admitted to PhD programme in a year shall be decided by the Research Committees of the Departments. The number shall be decided by taking into consideration the number of vacancies for research guideship available under all the approved Supervising Teachers of the departments and their willingness to offer research guideship on the researchproposals submitted by the candidates.

The supervising teacher shall be assigned by the Research Committee, on the basis of mutual consent of the supervising teacher and the candidate. The nature of the research proposal of the student and the competency of the supervisor to guide research in that area also should be taken into account. The research student has to carry out his/her research only in a research centre approved by the University.