The University Grants Commission(UGC) plans to make mandatory the two-step process for selection of students for M.Phil and PhD programmes for all higher educational institutions. With the enforcement of the revised rules, the NET qualified research scholars and those with M. Phil degree will also have to clear both the entrance test and the interview. The proposed move is aimed at bringing uniformity in the admission process and standardise the entrance tests held by the institutions. 

However, the draft regulations have left it open for the states to decide if they want to conduct a common entrance test for filling up M.Phil and PhD seats in the higher education institutions functioning under them. The proposed national entrance test as well as those to be conducted by the states and the individual institutions will measure the students’ research aptitude, analytical skills, writing skills, comprehension and reasoning ‘beyond the subject competency with appropriate threshold.’