Banaras Hindu University – BHU PhD Admission 2025-26

Banaras Hindu University (BHU) Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh invites application for PhD Admission 2025-26.

Modes of Admission

I. JRF (Junior Research Fellowship) Mode:

Candidates with the following eligibility can apply for admission to Ph.D. programmes under this mode:

• Who have qualified for Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) of UGC/CSIR, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Department of Biotechnology (DBT) or any other national agency.
• Who are otherwise eligible for direct admission mentioned below at III.

Note:

• Candidates who have been declared eligible for Assistant Professorship or Ph.D. only (without JRF) in the UGC/CSIR examination, awarded any other fellowship on the basis of UGC/CSIR NET examination and DST INSPIRE fellows are not eligible under this mode of admission.
• Candidates shall produce a valid JRF certificate at the time of physical verification of the documents, failing which their candidature shall be cancelled.

II. NET (National Eligibility Test) Mode:

Candidates who have qualified under Category 1 (JRF qualified candidates), Category 2 (qualified for Assistant Professorship without JRF) and Category 3 (qualified neither for JRF nor for Assistant Professorship but eligible for admission to Ph.D. only) in the NET December 2024 and NET June 2025 conducted by UGC/CSIR can apply for admission to Ph.D. Degree programmes under this mode. In case of Institute of Agricultural Sciences, ICAR-SRF (Ph.D.) examination 2025 will be used for the same.

Note: If a candidate has qualified for more than one of the above examinations, he/she is advised to enter the details of his/her best result in the application form.

III. Direct Admission:

A candidate who fulfils one of the following requirements may be considered for admission to the Ph.D. under the Direct Admission

• If any candidate comes up with a Nationally or Internationally renowned Ph.D. scholarship, the value of which is at par or greater than UGC/CSIR JRF/ICAR-SRF (Ph.D.), then he/she shall be given Ph.D. admission under supernumerary quota.
• A candidate occupying a senior management position may be considered for admission with prior approval of the Vice Chancellor, subject to the following conditions:
  • he/she occupies a senior management position in a government department/ public sector undertaking/ private industry (of repute and belonging to the top management of the firm), equivalent to pay matrix level-12 of 7th CPC Govt. of India, which is not recognized as centre of research by the University;
  • he/she has at least 12 years of professional experience and has a minimum age of 43 years;
  • he/she must be sponsored as a part-time candidate by the said organization, and the concerned DRC must be convinced that the candidate can effectively pursue his/her Ph.D. work in his/her parent organization.
  • he/she shall fulfil the mandatory 45 days per academic year (1st July to 30th June) of the residency period (physical presence on the campus and in the department/centre/school). the candidate is required to submit a No Objection Certificate as well as a work experience certificate from the parent organization in the prescribed proforma (Annexure J of the Ph.D. Ordinance).
• A candidate, working in an externally funded research project in the University as a research personnel, may be allowed to register for Ph.D. in the University provided he/she publishes at least one research paper in a journal of repute, to be defined by the DRC/SRC/CRC, after joining the project (out of the research work generated in the project) or he/ she gets short-listed in the JRF or NET mode of admission. Provided further that in such cases, the consent of the Pl and the would-be supervisor (in case Pl is not the supervisor) is available to the effect that the research work of the Project and that of the Ph.D. are overlapping and/or working in both simultaneously will not hamper the interest of either. Provided further that not less than one year duration is left for the completion of the externally funded research project from the last date of application for the Ph.D. programme. The candidate admitted to Ph.D. Programme under this clause shall not be eligible for the BHU Research Fellowship.
• A permanent teacher of the University or of the constituent / affiliated colleges of the University holding a substantive post (including those on probation).
• A non-teaching permanent employee of the University holding a substantive post, having outstanding performance in service, besides having extraordinary academic records, shall be considered. Such candidates are required to qualify in the research methodology MCQ-based examination, with a minimum of 50% marks, to be notified by the Controller of Examination Office
• Candidates holding P.G. degree (D.M/M.Ch./MD/MS/DNB) of Medical Science for admission in the Institute of Medical Sciences.

Eligibility Criteria

• Candidates, for being eligible for admission to Ph.D. program, must possess the minimum eligibility criteria in terms of educational qualification.
• The candidate must have passed the qualifying examination as mentioned in brochure with at least 55% in the aggregate or equivalent grade point average. For Faculty of Management Sciences, the candidate must have passed the qualifying examination with at least 60% in the aggregate or equivalent grade point average in the qualifying examination.
• Candidates must read the Ph.D. Admission Information Bulletin to ascertain their eligibility criteria and seat availability at the time of submitting application form.

Merit Preparation

The Ph.D. admission 2025, under the JRF mode, will be based on merit, with 100% weightage given to the percentile score computed from interview marks using the method provided below.

The Ph.D. admission 2025 under NET mode shall be done on Merit based on the total score of 100 that will come from two components –

• (a) 70% weight of the total Percentile of the candidate in UGC/CSIR NET examination as provided by the agency. In case of ICAR-SRF (Ph.D.) examination, the score as per the data provided by ICAR will be used.
• (b) 30% weightage of interview percentile as computed by the university using the method given below. In case of ICAR-SRF (Ph.D.) examination qualified candidates 30% weightage of interview score will be used.

Percentile calculation method: The following method will be used to calculate the percentile of a candidate whose interview marks under a particular subject basket is, say, T:

𝑃 = (𝑀 / 𝑁) × 100

Where:

• P: Denotes the computed percentile of the interview marks of that candidate in the mentioned subject basket.
• N: Denotes the total number of candidates who appeared in the interview of that subject basket.
• M: Number of candidates who secured an interview mark less than or equal to his/her marks.

Interview

• The candidate is required to appear before an interview committee of the concerned discipline/department/centre/school. Members of interview committee will asses the performance of candidates separately.
• For each mode of admission, the interview will be of 30 marks. The average of the marks awarded by the members of the interview committee shall be awarded to the candidate.
• For Faculties of Visual Arts and Performing Arts where practical knowledge and expertise of the applicant is crucial to decide his/her suitability as Ph.D. scholar, there shall be a qualifying practical examination as decided by the concerned Faculty and duly approved by the UACB before the commencement of Ph.D. admission process and the candidates who qualify in the practical examination shall be allowed to appear in the interview.
• Calling of the Applicants to Appear in the Interview:
• Under the JRF mode of admission all the candidates shall be called to appear in the interview.
• Under the NET mode of admission, ten candidates, against each advertised seat, shall be called to appear in the interview based on the computed total percentile of UGC/CSIR NET Examination or score of ICAR-SRF (Ph.D.) Examination, as the case may be. However, keeping in view the total number of applications received, the concerned Department/Centre/School may invite up to a maximum of 15 candidates for each advertised seat after obtaining prior approval of the University Admission Coordination Board (UACB).
• If the number of applications, under NET mode, for each advertised seat is less than 10, all candidates will be called.
• For each advertised seat in any department/centre/school under various categories in the two admission modes, the total number of candidates to be called for interview shall comprise 80% from the main discipline and 20% from the allied disciplines. In case of non-availability of candidates in main/allied discipline subjects, the shortfall will be compensated by calling the remaining number of candidates from allied/main discipline subjects.

Application Process

• The candidates are required to register themselves for admission to Ph.D. Degree programmes of the university using the registration link available on university admission information website www.bhuonline.in.
• After registration, your admission portal will be created that can be accessed using the credentials sent on registered email after registration.
• The link to access Ph.D. Admission Information Bulletin 2025 is also available on the candidate’s portal.
• After registration, the candidates may apply for Ph.D. admission in different modes of Ph.D. admission through their admission portal.
• All admissions to Ph.D. programs for session 2025-26 will be conducted online.

• Start of Online submission of application form: 3 December, 2025
• Last date for Online submission of application form: 16 December, 2025
• Correction window: 17 December, 2025
• Call letter issue: 20 December, 2025 to 24 December, 2025
• Physical verification of documents & Interview: Between 5 January, 2026 to 16 January, 2026
• Publication of result, offer letter and link for fee submission: 24 January, 2026 to 5 February, 2026

• Notification
• Brochure
• Application
• BHU Website