Academic aspirations of an individual do not end with a masters degree. Often students and professionals as well want to have the coveted PhD degree to their name. However, this step is an easy journey. From finding the right college, guide or mentor and to finally being awarded the Doctorate of Philosophy is a long cumbersome, yet very rewarding process. To make things easier, Careers360 has analysed PhD programmes on the basis of their National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) ranking data for the top five private universities in the country.
According to our analysis, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore showed the maximum increase in the percentage of students pursuing the PhD programme in three years from 2019-20. The increase in the number of students is more than 50 per cent over the last three years.
Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, which is a Deemed-to-be-university, remained the only institute whose number of students pursuing the PhD programme decreased during the same period of time.
Doctoral Student Pursuing Full-time PhD At Private Universitie
Institutes Names | 2021-22 | 2020-21 | 2019-20 |
Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore | 1553 | 1501 | 1022 |
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore | 276 | 239 | 265 |
Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology (Deemed-to-be-university) | 553 | 556 | 554 |
Birla Institute of Technology & Science -Pilani | 511 | 439 | 361 |
Siksha `O` Anusandhan, Bhubaneswar | 771 | 704 | 576 |
Many of the universities had a very fluctuating number of PhD graduates over the last three years. Among the top five private universities, only Vellore Institute of Technology VIT showed a decent increase in the number of PhD graduates.
Graduated Full-time PhD Students (including Integrated Ph.D)
Institutes Names | 2021-22 | 2020-21 | 2019-20 |
Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore | 145 | 205 | 129 |
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore | 11 | 13 | 10 |
Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology (Deemed-to-be-university) | 74 | 69 | 78 |
Birla Institute of Technology & Science -Pilani | 51 | 44 | 40 |
Siksha `O` Anusandhan, Bhubaneswar | 57 | 63 | 65 |
For the ease of analysis, the data considered is from 2019-20 to 2021-22 for the average of pursuing candidates. While the graduating average is taken from five years data from 2017-18 to 2020-22.
Institutes Names | Average PhD Students Pursuing | Average PhD Students Graduated |
Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore | 1359 | 154 |
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore | 260 | 13 |
Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology (Deemed-to-be-university) | 554 | 57 |
Birla Institute of Technology & Science -Pilani | 437 | 39 |
Siksha `O` Anusandhan, Bhubaneswar | 684 | 62 |
In 2020-2, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore has the highest number of PhD candidates pursuing while Vellore Institute of Technology has the highest number of PhD candidates completing the part-time programme.
While Siksha `O` Anusandhan, Bhubaneswar reported the lowest number of candidates in the same year, not one candidate successfully graduated from it.
Average Pursuing vs Passed Candidates In Part-Time PhD
Institutes Names | Candidates pursuing | Candidates graduated |
Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore | 599 | 99 |
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore | 703 | 34 |
Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology (Deemed-to-be-university) | 108 | 23 |
Birla Institute of Technology & Science -Pilani | 198 | 32 |
Siksha `O` Anusandhan, Bhubaneswar | 98 | 0 |
Among the top five IITs, NITs and State universities, private universities offer the maximum seats for part-time PhD programmes. Among all the institutes that were compared, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore had the highest number of intake capacity.
Institutes Names | Average PhD Students Pursuing | Average PhD Students Graduated |
Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore | 825 | 108 |
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore | 520 | 23 |
Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology (Deemed-to-be-university) | 137 | 34 |
Birla Institute of Technology & Science -Pilani | 172 | 15 |
Siksha `O` Anusandhan, Bhubaneswar | 116 | 3 |
All PhD aspirants are suggested to check the previous articles of IIT, NIT and State universities
Updated by Atul Ade and Aditi Narendra