Coursework structure and evaluation

Coursework for JRFs at PRL

Each JRF will have to undergo a prescribed pre-Ph.D. coursework prior to joining research. Based on the coursework structure adopted in the last few years and looking at the requirements of various Universities / IIT where PRL students will be registered for their Ph.D. degree and UGC guidelines the following course structure is designed.

Minimum credits required for registration for Ph.D. degree - 44

Minimum credits through course work 44

Semester 1:  04 core courses + Writing  course + 1 Project

Semester 2: 04 core courses + 1 Project

3rd Semester : 02 Projects (4th project can be done in 4th semester)

Subsequent Semesters: Thesis credits

Each semester: Seminar attendance course  

A four-credit Writing course is required to be taken by all the research scholars. Out of the minimum credits through coursework, a minimum of 12 credits before graduation are required to be completed through project-based courses during the first two semesters and 3rd/4th semesters. Each unit of this project course will have three credits and four of such units must be registered during the first year of the programme.

Project-based courses may include any of the following types of activities that involve at least 100 hours of work to earn 3 credits by the research scholar in a given semester;  

• Lab-based experiments

• Independent Study with a faculty

• Study Design

• Book review

Academic Performance Requirements (Ph.D. programme):

1. The minimum Cumulative Performance Index (CPI) requirement for continuing in the programme or for graduation is 6.5.

2. In the first semester in which the research scholar registers, the minimum Semester Performance Index (SPI) may be relaxed to 6.0.
   If a research scholar secures a CPI between 6.0 and 6.5, he/she may be allowed to continue in the following semester on the recommendation of the Academic Committee and subsequent approval from the competent authority in PRL.

3. A research scholar will not be normally allowed to continue registration in IIT, Gandhinagar if :

• His/Her CPI is below 6.0 at any point of time in the programme

• He/she obtains two F grades in the same or different courses c. He/She accumulates a total of 8 or more U (Unsatisfactory) grades d. He/She secures Us in all the thesis units registered for in two consecutive semesters.

Course Number and Title

 Each course has a unique number consisting of a code to identify the discipline with 2 or 3 characters of the English alphabet followed by a three-digit number.

• FP:602 Writing

• RS: 601 Research Methodology

• PH:000 Physics

• ES:000 Earth Sciences 

• PS: 000 Planetary Sciences

• SPA: 000 Space and Atmospheric Sciences

• SP:000 Solar Physics

• AA: Astronomy & Astrophysics

• AMO: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics

The first digit following the alphabetic code represents the level of the course.

• XX:600 Ph.D. level course (first semester)

• XX:700 Ph.D. level course (second semester

Course Credits

• The credits of a course are based on the scale of learning new concepts and developing in-depth understanding. Besides attending the lectures or laboratory sessions, research scholars are expected to spend a significant amount of time in learning the same concepts more in depth and imbibe those concepts through assignments, exercises, projects and reading reference material.

• The credits assigned to a course reflect the amount of effort a research scholar is expected to put in that course.

• It is expected that the research scholar will spend at least double the period outside the lectures for further learning on the topics covered. Part of this further learning may come from tutorial component associated with some of these courses, which will help the research scholars in streamlining their thoughts and discussing their doubts with the instructor/Tutor.

• Usually the courses will have 2/3 lectures per week with approximately 40 lecture hours in a semester, which is defined as a 4 credit course.

• All Courses are of 40 hours. Ten hours of class room teaching is considered as one credit and hence all courses will be of 4 credits. Research scholars must clear all the courses (08) and also project (04) evaluations.

Project guidelines

 The two projects should be done as per the following guidelines in both the semesters.

• Each research project course will carry 3 credits, with an expectation of about 100 hours of overall engagement, which includes meeting, reading,
  preparations, report writing, etc.

• Each JRF admitted in July of the respective calender year needs to finish 12 credits (4 units) of research project courses by June of the subsequent
  calender year, i.e. July 2016 - April 2017.

• Research Project is an activity oriented course where research scholars need to perform one or more of the following: - experimental work,
  simulations, coding, analysis, design, data collection and interpretation, structured laboratory sessions, etc.

• The topic chosen in research course should not be part of thesis work in any manner. In case of any overlap with thesis work in future, the JRF is
  expected to submit request for dropping these credits by submitting a detailed explanation.

Project Advisor   

• JRFs should choose project advisor in the area of their interest in consultation with the Academic Committee. A faculty member cannot have more than two JRFs from a batch for projects.

• JRFs should work with at least one project advisor who is not from the primary area of their research interest.

• JRFs can have the same project advisor only for TWO projects out of the required FOUR per semester.

• JRFs should meet and choose project advisor for each project within first week of the semester and submit the name(s) to the Head, Academic Services.

Project Evaluation 

• JRFs are expected to work on each research project for 3/4 weeks in the semester by distributing their work on weekly basis. The assessment will be primarily based on the work done and consistency of effort put in by JRF.

• JRFs are expected to present their work before an evaluation committee or a faculty group towards the end of the project duration.

• The project advisor will finalize grade(s) of JRF in consultation with the committee/group and submit it to the Academic Committee.

Evaluation of course work

At the end of the semester, the evaluation of a research scholar is done by awarding a letter grade in each of his/her courses by the concerned Instructor-in-Charge taking into account his/her performance in the various examinations, quizzes, assignments, laboratory work (if any), etc., besides regularity of attendance in classes. Grades are submitted to the Academic committee within the prescribed time limit of the each semester examination of the concerned course. The letter grades and their numerical equivalents on a 10-point scale (called Grade Points) are as follows:

Grade Equivalent marks Remarks

A+ 11 Mark of excellence

A 10

A- 9

B 8

B- 7

C 6

C- 5

D 4 Passing

E 2 Fail

F 0 Fail

SPI= ΣAiBi/ΣAi

ΣAi Total credits for each semester

ΣBi Grade point obtained

CPI= ΣAiBi/ΣCi

ΣCi Total credits for all semesters

• Letter grade A+ is given point value of 11 as a mark of excellence.

• The SPI/CPI at the end of any semester shall have the maximum limit of 10. In case the SPI/CPI calculation shows the grade point value more than 10, it shall be limited to 10 points.

• The letter grades E and F both are considered as fail grade; a research scholar will have to repeat/replace the course in which he/she gets fail grade. The letter grade E may be considered as grade for sufficient exposure to satisfy the pre-requisites of another course, wherever applicable.

• The units of projects / thesis will be graded using letter grades S and U which stand for Satisfactory (S) and Unsatisfactory (U), respectively.
  A research scholar earns 04 credits for each thesis unit he/she is registered in a semester.

• The grade S or U will be awarded for thesis units as follows:

At the end of the semester, the thesis supervisor(s)/project supervisor(s) will assess the research scholar’s progress towards the thesis work during the semester and will award the grade S for each unit if the work is satisfactory and U for every unsatisfactory unit. Thus a research scholar registered for 04 Units can get one of the following five combinations SSSS, SSSU, SSUU, SUUU, UUUU

Format for the Ph.D. thesis grades in the research scholar’s transcripts:

Thesis/Project units Thesis/Project Credits

6 24

5 20

4 16

3 12

2 08

1 04

 *01 thesis Unit = 04 credits  *01 project Unit = 03 credits

 A thesis unit which is awarded U grade will not be counted towards completion of the required thesis credits.