Bharathiar University PhD thesis

What the format rules actually cover

Take clause 18.2 of the regulations, the part with the heading “Part II – Thesis”, and search for the word “font”. It comes only for the synopsis and for the cover page. For the thesis body, the regulations give no fixed font, line spacing or margin. Fix these with your supervisor and keep them same in every chapter. 12-point Times New Roman, 1.5 spacing and a wider left margin is a safe choice.

The things the regulations do fix are in the table above. Out of these, three rules give scholars the most trouble.

First one is the page limit. Typed matter in the thesis can’t cross 275 A4 pages. Bibliography, tables and diagrams are not counted in this. On exemption the wording is strict, “under any circumstances” it will not be given. If your draft has come to 320 pages, don’t waste time asking for permission and start cutting.

Second is the cover. Bharathiar wants thin flexible cover only, so hard binding we cannot do here. Some print shops near the campuses do hard case binding for every thesis by default. Tell them clearly when you give the order.

Third is the title. The title in the thesis and the title in the synopsis must match word for word. Even if one word is changed, the staff at the counter will raise it.

Getting a long thesis under 275 pages

In most long theses we see, the literature review is the biggest culprit. Then comes the method chapter, where scholars explain methods every examiner knows already. Also results get written twice many times, first in the table and again in the paragraph under it.

Start with the review chapter. Instead of summarising each study one by one, put the studies together under themes. After that go to the method chapter. There is no need for two pages explaining what a t-test is. Then read the results chapter. If the numbers are already sitting in a table, in the text just write what they mean for your hypothesis.

Keep in mind what is outside the 275 count. Tables, diagrams and the bibliography are not counted. Your published papers also you can attach as per regulations, and those pages also don’t come in the count. So you can keep a long table and remove the paragraph that repeats it.

Some scholars are reducing the font size or making margins narrow to save pages. We tell them not to do it, the checker will catch it in one look. What is counted is the matter you have typed, and squeezing the layout doesn’t change that.

The synopsis and the two sealed panels

The synopsis goes in three months before the thesis. In those three months the university collects consent from the examiners. Length of synopsis is 6 to 10 pages. Type it in Times New Roman 12, printed on one side of the A4 sheet only.

On the copies, scholars get confused every year. Six copies of the synopsis is what the regulations say. CRE’s own checklist says four soft-bound copies, or six for a Tamil synopsis, along with a CD that has the PDF. We suggest one phone call to CRE before you go for printing, because these two numbers are different. Also carry two extra copies with you.

The checklist also asks for the ₹6,000 fee, the reports of Doctoral Committee meetings I and II, and attested copies of your registration and your degree. You have to file the application in person at the Research Coordinator’s office.

Whether the synopsis is accepted or not depends on two documents that you don’t prepare yourself. Your supervisor has to submit two sealed panels of examiners. One panel has four to six examiners from abroad, and the other has four to six from India. Every name needs a consent letter and a CV. If the sealed panels are not there, CRE will not take the synopsis. The same happens if the Certificate of Genuineness of Research Publication is missing. Staple the first page of your paper to this certificate.

A month before, ask your guide whether the panels are getting ready. Foreign examiners take weeks to send the written consent, sometimes more.

Submitting the thesis

After the synopsis you get six months to submit the thesis. Your minimum period should also be over by that time. For a scholar with a PG degree, the minimum is three years if full-time and four years if part-time. Even one month early is not possible, as clause 19 says no early submission under any circumstances.

Before submitting, you have to give a pre-Ph.D. presentation in the department. Any teacher or research scholar of the department can attend. Whatever comments they give, you add into the draft as your supervisor advises. You also need a certificate from your Doctoral Committee about the quality of the research and the publications. CRE will not process the thesis without this certificate.

After that the online part starts. Register on the university’s ERP portal for scholars. Upload the thesis PDF (under 10 MB), the thesis certificate, the declaration and the genuineness certificate. In the CRE instructions these are Annexures I to III. Then take printout of the application and go to CRE with five printed copies, a CD and the ₹18,000 thesis fee. If you cross the six-month window, the late fee is ₹500 for every six months.

The 10 MB limit is a problem for theses with lots of photos and scanned pages. Compress the images in Word before making the PDF (File › Compress Pictures). Then check the PDF size once.

The 10% check and the 15-day certificate

Bharathiar has had rules for the online plagiarism check since 1 November 2022.

The e-thesis you upload for the check should have the chapters only. Leave out the front pages and the references. The permitted similarity is 10%. Before the e-thesis is uploaded, you, your supervisor and your head of department have to sign the certificate. And the certificate does not last long. From the day it is issued, it is valid for 15 days only.

With only 15 days in hand, you have to think about which work you do first. Many scholars run the official check first and then spend a month going around for signatures, fees and no-dues certificates. By then the certificate has expired. Finish all the other work first, then run the official check and submit within those 15 days.

On the certificate form of the university you will see DrillBit named, with 10% as the “acceptable maximum limit”. If similarity is above 10% and up to 40%, the university’s page on the UGC rules allows one to six months to revise and resubmit. So check your own draft before the official one. Correct the copied parts inside the chapters, because that is where the percentage is counted.

Two papers and two presentations

You need two published research papers before the thesis is submitted. For arts, humanities, social sciences and languages, the journal should be in SSCI, AHCI or Scopus, or it should be a peer-refereed journal. In science, scholars mostly target SCI, SCIE or Scopus journals, or peer-refereed journals. A 2025 amendment removed the words “UGC-CARE” from this clause and put “refereed or peer review journal” in its place.

Apart from papers, you must present two times in a conference or seminar and keep the certificate or reprint for proof. A paper printed in conference proceedings is not counted as one of the two journal papers. Many scholar publish in proceedings and think the requirement is over, and then get stuck.

One relief is that accepted papers are enough at the synopsis stage. At the degree stage there is a compliance certificate, and it checks both papers and both presentations again. Keep all the proofs together in one folder from the start.

Evaluation and the public viva

Under clause 20, the thesis is sent online to two examiners chosen from the panels, one from abroad and one from India. Your supervisor acts as the third examiner. Each outside examiner reports whether the thesis is commended or not commended, or whether it needs revision and resubmission. Some examiners are slow. The university sends a second reminder, and if still the report has not come in 60 days from receipt, another examiner is appointed.

When one examiner says “not commended”, the thesis goes to a third examiner. If the examiner who did not commend it was foreign, the new one is also foreign. If it was the Indian examiner, the new one is Indian. In case both the examiners say not commended, then the Ethics and Grievance Redressal Committee will look into the matter.

Once all the reports come, your supervisor prepares a consolidated report within 15 working days. The viva is held within 30 days after that report reaches CRE. The board comprises of the Indian examiner and your supervisor, who is the convener, and you get at least seven days’ notice. It is a public viva-voce. Anyone from the department or interested in the subject can attend. Viva is conducted in English. Sometimes a visitor asks in Tamil, and then you reply in Tamil only.

Suppose you are not clearing the viva in first attempt. You have to wait one month, and the second attempt must happen inside three months. Whatever corrections the examiners want, finish them before the viva and give a list of the pages you changed.

Where we can help

At Bharathiar, the page limit and the 10% check are the two places where scholars mostly need outside help. For thesis formatting we go by the same Bharathiar rules given here. We can also mark which pages you can remove, and the content will still be there. For the writing itself, see PhD thesis help in Coimbatore. The Coimbatore page compares Bharathiar with the Anna University centres and TNAU. If your research centre is an engineering college, read the Anna University guide instead. For everything else there is the general formatting checklist.