The guidelines would lay down a general principle for admission and method of evaluation of theses so that disparities among universities with regard to the PhD and MPhil programmes were bridged, a senior UGC official said here.

At present, different universities followed different methods for admission into these programmes. Some conducted written tests, while others did not. Some universities got the thesis paper checked by foreign evaluators, while others got it done internally, the official said.

As a result, there was currently a lot of disparity among the varsities with regard to course work and thesis.

Moreover, in the wake of instances of students at the PhD level resorting to plagiarism, the guidelines would prescribe ways on how to deal with such cases. "We had set up a committee in the matter, which has submitted its report. We have sent the report to different universities, seeking their views", the official said.