Ph.D. Program & Requirements

Specific guidelines for these programs and relevant documents and forms are available here.

The Ph.D. program at IIIT-Delhi is focused towards research like any other Ph.D. program - limited coursework to enhance the breadth and depth of a student, followed by focused research. Some of the key features of this program are:

• Being a focused program, it allows a motivated and hardworking student to finish in as early as 4 years, subject to fulfilling the degree requirements.
• Following the best practices in several universities around the world, fresh BTech graduates are encouraged to apply. Neither a master's degree nor GATE is mandatory for the application process.
• The institute provides attractive compensation – the stipend is Rs. 37,000 + HRA as per DST rates per month until successfully completing the comprehensive exam and Rs.42,000 + HRA as per DST rates per month since completing comprehensive exam until completion of 5th year
• The institute provides support to present papers in national and international conferences.

Per Semester Load Requirements

A normal full time load is 12 to 20 units for all PG students. Students who are on assistantship (and are earning the remuneration portion) shall be given a relaxation of upto 4 units in the normal full time load. A student may be permitted an overload of at most 4 units in a semester, with permission from the PG committee. The students who have completed the stipulated course requirements shall register for the thesis units in multiple of 4 units (i.e. 4, 8, 12 or 16). No overload shall be permitted in the thesis unit registration. Part time students may register for any number of units lesser than the normal full-time load.

Course Work Requirements

• The requirement of the course work for a Ph.D. student is aimed at providing the basic academic preparation to carry out the research, and have sufficient breadth in the area. The minimum course requirement for a Ph.D. student is normally 32 units for students whose highest degree is a B.Tech. (or equivalent), and 16 for those who have an MTech (or equivalent). The PG committee may ask the students with insufficient background to do additional courses (in addition to 32/16 units). For detailed course of requirement refer PG Regulations Here.
• In special cases, for students with advance standing by virtue of their academic preparedness and/or by virtue of their professional work experience, some of the course requirements may be waived. All such waivers shall be decided upon by the PG Committee and reported to the Senate.
• The Ph.D. students are expected to finish their course requirements as per the timelines mentioned in PG Regulations Here.
• Transfer of Credits for Courses done Outside: Students may be permitted to do academic work and courses in places of repute outside IIIT-Delhi. Based on their performance/quantum of work done and the content of the course, the PG committee may consider them equivalent to some course credits, and waive credit requirements for similar courses/projects within IIIT-Delhi. Institutions with which IIIT-Delhi has arrangements/MOU/student exchange programs, transfer of credits may also be permitted. Any such waivers/transfer is permitted only if the courses being considered have not been counted for any other degree/diploma requirement.
• A Ph.D. student may be permitted to replace up to two courses done by him/her and in which he/she has obtained passing, but not good, grade. The replacement will be permitted as and when the request is made by the concerned student. In this case, the earlier course will be listed in the transcript as having been taken on “Audit”. He / She may also be permitted to do extra courses to improve the CGPA. All such permissions shall be granted by the PG committee upon requests from the students.

Teaching Requirements

One of the potential career options for the research students is academics. The Ph.D. program at IIIT-Delhi aims to develop suitable teaching skills among the research students through teaching requirements. Towards this, it requires all students on financial assistantship plan of the Institute are required to take part in the teaching activities. All Ph.D. students must be TA for at least two semesters to satisfy the teaching requirements for a Ph.D. degree. Students on research assistantship will also be required to complete this requirement, though they may be assigned lighter load each semester. The teaching requirement may be waived for part-time and/or sponsored candidates.

Thesis Requirements

All Ph.D. students irrespective of their entry category are expected to successfully complete a minimum of 56 units by thesis. In truly exceptional cases where the Ph.D. candidate is ready with a thesis before he/she has accumulated these credits, the PG committee can consider waiving off some of these units. For the purpose of grading in the thesis units registered, the progress in the thesis work shall be assessed by the thesis supervisor(s). For each semester, one S (if the performance is satisfactory) or one X (if the performance is not satisfactory) grade shall be awarded by the thesis supervisor(s). The thesis grades shall be submitted by the thesis supervisor(s) at the end of the semester.

Thesis supervisor and external co-supervisor

The thesis work shall be done under the guidance of the Ph.D. supervisor, who shall be a faculty member of the Institute. There may be multiple supervisors. Normally, a student is expected to decide the supervisor(s) by the start of the second semester but can defer it till the end of second semester .This will be done by informing the PG Committee through a form, which shall be signed by the supervisor(s). A student can change the supervisor later – for this a formal request will have to be submitted to PG Committee and has to be signed by the old as well as the new supervisor. A student may also have external co-supervisors for the thesis. Such external co-supervisor shall be approved by the PG Committee upon a request by the student, duly approved and forwarded by the supervisor(s). The request must be accompanied by the CV/Bio or sufficient information about the proposed external co-supervisor which will allow the PGC to evaluate the suitability. Normally, the external co-supervisor should be finalized before the comprehensive and the PGC should be informed by the adviser and the student about the same.

Thesis evaluation and defense

All Ph.D. theses will be evaluated by a panel of thesis examiners who are experts in that area, and the candidate will have to defend the thesis in front of this panel. The panel will consist of supervisor(s) of the student, and a minimum of three non-supervisor examiners, at most one of which can be from within the Institute. A thesis defense date will be fixed, after taking inputs from all examiners on the panel. The defense shall be open to all. At the end of the defense, the panel will deliberate and make an overall recommendation.