University of Kerala PhD thesis

Which regulations cover you

The rulebook now in force is the University’s Ph.D. regulations of 2022. The title says 2022, but the University order that brought it in (Ac.E1/23887/2022) is dated 7 December 2023 only. Anyone who registers from the January 2024 session onwards falls under these, and for them the University’s own 2016 regulations are no longer used.

If you joined before that, look at clause 16. It says scholars already registered may be governed by these regulations or by the UGC’s 2016 regulations. Those registered between July 2009 and the notification come under the 2009 or 2016 UGC rules, as the case may be. Who decides between the two sets, on that point the clause is silent. So go to the research section and ask which set is being applied to your file. Get their reply in writing.

There is one practical problem with the document itself. The copy on the University’s research portal is a scanned image. Try to search a word in it, nothing comes. Copy-paste of text is also not happening. So first we had to run it through OCR software. After that we sat and compared each clause quoted on this page with the original scan, by eye. For anything important, open the PDF and read that page yourself.

Thesis format: what to agree with your supervisor

The 2022 regulations don’t mention paper size, margins, font or line spacing. The submission form is also silent on these, and on citation style. In October 2026 we searched the University’s websites and did not find any separate thesis manual. So the format is whatever your supervisor approves.

Sit with your supervisor in the first year itself and fix the points below. Put them in one short note and get your supervisor to initial it.

• Paper size and orientation. Also whether printing is on one side or both sides.
• Font, font size and line spacing, for the main text, for block quotations and for tables.
• All four margins. Keep some extra space on the binding side.
• Reference style. APA, MLA, Chicago, or whichever style is common in your subject.
• Order of the front pages and chapters, and how the pages are numbered.
• Binding colour and what is printed on the spine, if your department follows some practice.

Suppose you have nothing else to go by. In Indian theses, A4 paper, a 12-point serif font, 1.5 line spacing and a wider left margin are widely used. This is common practice only. It is not a University of Kerala rule. Most of the department keep a few recent bound theses in their library. Look at two or three from your subject before deciding.

But two things inside every thesis copy are fixed by the form itself. One is your signed declaration that the thesis was not the basis for any degree, diploma, associateship, fellowship or similar title earlier. The other is a report from your supervising teacher certifying that the thesis is a record of research done by you. Clause 11(4) of the regulations asks for two more pages. From your side an undertaking against plagiarism is needed. From the supervisor, a certificate that the work is original. Keep space for all of these in the front matter.

Coursework and the semester reviews

First you finish coursework of 14 credits. As per clause 9(1), two courses are compulsory, Research and Publication Ethics and one course in research methodology. If your coursework score comes below 55%, or below the matching grade on the UGC’s ten-point scale, you cannot continue and cannot submit (9(3)). Clause 9(2) also wants every scholar to get some training in teaching or in writing during the PhD.

After coursework, you meet the Department Doctoral Committee every semester. You make a presentation and give a short progress report. Its recommendations go to the University, and a copy comes to you (clause 10(2)). Suppose the committee finds your progress is not up to the mark. Then it records why, and tells you what to correct. Ignore those corrections and the committee can go ahead and recommend cancelling your registration (10(3)).

Minimum duration is three years including the coursework. The maximum is six years from admission. The Syndicate can give an extension of up to two years. Women, and scholars with disability above 40%, can get two more years beyond that, so ten years is the outer limit (clause 4).

The pre-submission seminar

Before submitting, you have to present the thesis to your Department Doctoral Committee. The session is open, and faculty and other research scholars can attend (clause 11(2)). There is also an older University order dated 13 January 2021 with more detail, and departments still go by it when they run the seminar. As per that order, the panel of experts is signed by your supervisor, your head of department and the Dean of the Faculty. These three attend the seminar along with an observer. The corrections the experts suggest are listed, attached to the minutes and signed by the same officials.

Take that signed list seriously, because it stays in your file. Do every correction and write the page number where you did it. Then show the list and your notes to supervisor, before printing anything. Anyone checking can find a skipped one from the list.

The similarity check at Kerala University Library

Clause 11(3) of the regulations asks for plagiarism detection using software. It does not name any tool or any percentage. The actual working rules come from the library. On the library’s research page there is a link to its procedure note, and we have put the steps from that note in short here.

• The library checks the final version only. Test checking is not permitted.
• Your thesis should reach the library minimum two weeks before the date you are planning to submit.
• Pay ₹105 at the University cash counter or online, under General Remittance, “Fee towards Anti-Plagiarism Software”. Send the receipt with your request.
• Email one PDF file that starts from Chapter 1 and ends with the reference list. Front pages and appendices are not included. Send the title page in another file.
• Type your details straight into the mail body as plain text, don’t put them in an attachment. Name, title, guide and the guide’s email, subject, research centre, registration order number with date, and phone number. Once this mail goes, no change in the title is possible.
• The application form has to be verified by your supervisor. Once that is done, attach it to the mail. A copy of your research order also goes with it.

Sometimes a matching source needs to be left out of the count. For that the library wants your guide’s written consent. The certificate is issued by the University Librarian. Shodhganga gets the one-page report along with the thesis, so keep one copy together with the CD of the thesis. According to the note, DrillBit Extreme is used for theses, following a Syndicate resolution of 28 December 2023. INFLIBNET’s national DrillBit service has been running on six-month extensions. When you apply, ask the library which tool they are using now.

Handing in the thesis

The submission form consists four pages. They are the application, a declaration, the supervising teacher’s certificate and ten numbered instructions. Its main requirements are already in the table above. Scholars mostly get stuck on three of them.

The first is the one-page synopsis. Ten copies are needed, and neither your name nor your supervisor’s name should appear on any copy. Think of a reader who has only this sheet in hand and not the thesis. He should still follow what you did. Put the title, problem, method, main findings and contribution, all on one side of a single sheet.

Next is timing. You can hand in the application, fee, synopsis copies and supporting papers up to three months before the thesis itself. Miss that three-month window and you lose the fee, because the form says in plain words that no fee is refunded.

The third point is about originals. The registration order, the title-change order and your degree certificate all go in as originals, and they are returned after verification. Even then, keep a scanned copy of each one with you before you give it.

In the form’s fee table, the PhD fee is shown as ₹3,500. But the copy available online has a 2022–23 print line on it. Check the current fee with the University before you pay.

Evaluation, viva and the wait

At least three people read the thesis. One is your supervisor, and the others are two or more external examiners who are not employed by the University. Where it can be arranged, one external will be from abroad (clause 11(5)). The viva happens only when both externals recommend the thesis, after any corrections they ask for. If one of them rejects it, the thesis goes to an alternate examiner, and that examiner’s opinion decides. Without the alternate’s approval, the thesis fails (11(6)).

The viva board has your supervisor and one or more externals. Online viva is allowed. Anyone from the committee, the faculty or the students may attend. From the date you submit, the University has six months to complete the evaluation and declare the viva result (11(7)).

While you are waiting, keep two lines of the form in mind. First one is about enquiries. Evaluation is kept confidential. Till it is over, the University will not reply if you enquire. The second is instruction 9. As per that, you can’t publish the thesis without the University’s sanction, whether it is approved or not. How this applies to journal papers taken from your chapters, ask your supervisor once.

What we couldn’t confirm, and whom to ask

Some answers we could not find in any document. Whom to ask for each is given here.

• The similarity limit. The regulations don’t give a figure, and the library note also doesn’t. Nationally the UGC 2018 regulations apply, and there 10% is the level with no penalty. Check with your supervisor and the Director of Research’s office which figure the University is following.
• Layout. We could not find any manual. Your supervisor decides it, and your department may have its own practice.
• Which regulations cover an older registration. Ask the academic section of the University that issued your registration order.
• The current fee and number of copies. The form online may be older than the 2022 regulations. Confirm both at the University office before printing and paying.
• Which checker the library is running. Ask the library at the time you apply.