Revised UGC norms treat unacknowledged AI use as plagiarism in PhD Work

Lucknow: The University Grants Commission (UGC) has issued revised guidelines to regulate the use of artificial intelligence and check plagiarism in PhD theses, setting clear limits and penalties for violations.

According to the new UGC guidelines, a PhD thesis with 10%-40% AI-generated content or plagiarism will be returned to the scholar for revision within six months. If the similarity level is between 40%-60%, the scholar will be barred from submitting the thesis for a year. In cases where the overlap exceeds 60%, the PhD registration may be cancelled.

UGC has clarified that the core content of a PhD thesis must be written by the researcher, with AI permitted only for limited support such as language correction.

The earlier 2018 regulations did not mention AI explicitly, as the technology was not widely used. The updated norms now treat unacknowledged AI use under the same category as plagiarism, applying identical percentage thresholds.

The revised rules also extend accountability to supervisors. In cases of repeated or high-level plagiarism, supervisors may face action, including restrictions on guiding new scholars or withdrawal of supervision rights.

UGC has reiterated that all PhD theses must be uploaded to the Shodhganga repository. Through the UGC’s ShodhShuddhi programme, INFLIBNET provides affiliated higher education institutions with access to plagiarism detection software such as DrillBit Extreme, Turnitin and iThenticate.

Once a thesis is uploaded to the Shodhganga repository, it becomes part of a national database, enabling universities across India to compare new submissions with existing research to check duplication.

An educationist, Prof AK Singh, said, “The guidelines aim to standardise research practices and maintain academic integrity.”

Research scholars expressed mixed views.

A PhD scholar at Lucknow University, Atharv Dubey, said that there is still a lack of clarity on how AI-generated content will be assessed.

Another scholar at AKTU, Mansi Mishra, said, “While the use of AI in PhD theses is increasing, penalties like a one-year ban or cancellation of PhD registration seem too harsh.”