By: B K Mishra For students aspiring to pursue a PhD in Bihar’s universities, governor’s secretariat has issued a set of directions aimed at making admissions more regular, transparent and time-bound.The recent order issued from Lok Bhavan follows recommendations made by a committee of four vice-chancellors convened recently by the chancellor’s secretariat.The most important message for PhD aspirants is that universities have been directed to follow the PhD Ordinance and Regulations, 2026 strictly. Students who have already qualified the PhD Admission Test (PAT) and whose admission process has been undertaken will also have to be registered according to the applicable regulations.Students waiting for opportunities from earlier admission cycles also have a reason to watch university notifications closely. Universities have been asked to advertise pending PhD admissions for the 2024, 2025 and 2026 cycles at the earliest, with the objective of clearing the existing backlog and regularising the admission process.Another important provision concerns UGC-NET qualification. Admission will follow the eligibility provisions under the 2026 PhD regulations, including rules relating to NET qualification and its weightage. The order specifies that candidates qualifying NET in a particular year will be considered for the corresponding admission cycle. For example, admission for the 2024 session would consider candidates who qualified NET in 2024.For students, this makes keeping track of the year of NET qualification, admission cycles and university notifications of particular importance. The directions also seek to prevent prolonged uncertainty. Universities have also been asked to complete PhD admissions in a timebound manner and conduct future admissions regularly.At the same time, admission will be linked to research capacity. In any admission cycle, universities may fill not more than one-third of vacant seats, while up to two-thirds of vacant intake/seats may be filled up to the 2026 session.For aspiring researchers, the practical lesson is simple: Check official university notifications regularly, keep NET/PAT documents ready, verify the applicable regulations and apply against the correct academic cycle.
Students qualifying the UGC-NET will be considered for admissions corresponding to their year of qualification.
AI opens up diverse career opportunities for studentsBy: Sanjay KumarArtificial intelligence (AI) is no longer confined to research laboratories or science fiction alone. It has become part of everyday life through ChatGPT, AI-powered search, recommendation systems, medical applications, digital payments, financial technologies, smart manufacturing and autonomous machines.But ChatGPT is only one visible part of a much larger transformation—and for students, that transformation is creating a wide range of career opportunities.One major pathway is machine learning and AI engineering. Students of computer science, mathematics, statistics and engineering can pursue careers as AI and machine-learning engineers, data scientists, software developers and AI researchers.Data is another rapidly expanding field. Businesses, govts and research institutions generate enormous volumes of digital information, creating demand for data analysts, data scientists, data engineers and business-intelligence professionals. Programming, statistics, data visualisation and analytical thinking are increasingly valuable across industries.AI is also creating specialised opportunities in computer vision, natural-language processing, generative AI, robotics and cybersecurity. These technologies are being applied to medical imaging, agriculture, manufacturing, translation, speech recognition, software development, autonomous vehicles, logistics and threat detection.Physics students also can combine AI with astronomy, climate science or computational physics. Biology students can enter bioinformatics, genomics and computational biology.Economics and commerce students can explore financial analytics, risk modelling and AI-driven business intelligence, while social science students can use AI for surveys, text analysis and computational research.Another emerging area is responsible AI. Organisations increasingly need professionals who understand privacy, cybersecurity, bias, transparency, ethics and the social consequences of automated decision-making. The future will need not only people who build AI systems but also those who evaluate and govern them.For undergraduate students, the journey can begin with programming, statistics, data analysis and basic machine learning, followed by projects, competitions and internships. Postgraduates can specialise in deep learning, robotics, computer vision, generative AI or AI for scientific research.
