VTU PhD thesis format

The template and the older guideline

The Registrar (Evaluation) of VTU sent a circular on 15 July 2025 to all colleges and research centres. It says PhD and M.Sc. (Engg.) by Research theses go through the online portal, organised as per the template at serial number 8, under “Long Synopsis”, on the Ph.D. formats page of VTU. The circular has a specimen title page attached. There the VTU logo comes at the head of the page and your University Seat Number is printed below your name. Guide and co-guide names are placed side by side, and the college logo comes near the bottom.

First download this template from vtu.ac.in and start your work in that file itself. Please don’t take a senior’s thesis file and edit it. Many of those files was prepared as per the older guideline, and research centres are still passing them around.

Some small layout doubts you won’t find answered in the new template at all. For those points open the older guideline also. In that guideline the paper size is A4 and body text is in 12 point. Line spacing is 1.5. Margins were 1.25 inch on the left, 1 inch on the right and 0.75 inch at the upper and lower edges. For references it used a number inside square brackets, and the numbering goes in the same order you cite them in the text. It also wanted printing on one side only. The 2026 checklist keeps your list of publications after the conclusions chapter, and the references go after that list. When the template says nothing about some point, ask to your guide whether your centre still follows the old practice.

VTU has not fixed any page limit. Neither the 2023 regulations nor the 2026 checklist gives a minimum or maximum length.

From coursework to thesis: the VTU sequence

The 2023 regulations fix the order of steps, given here in brief.

1. Coursework, then an oral exam on it. The regulations call this oral exam a viva-voce on the whole field. It is held before your Research Advisory Committee, at least three months after the coursework is over.
2. Two open seminars. As per clause 8.1.1, the first seminar is three months after the oral exam and the second is three months after the first one. The March 2026 checklist gives four months and then two months instead. Count the months from the oral exam result. We would go with the checklist dates only, because the VTU office is checking your file with that checklist in hand.
3. Papers. These must be published or accepted before the colloquium. Details are in the papers section.
4. Pre-submission colloquium. You give the RAC a synopsis in English, in VTU’s format. The RAC must get it at least three months before the thesis (8.1.3). A plagiarism report from your research centre goes with it.
5. Synopsis and examiner panel. From your research centre VTU gets a single printed synopsis, with the documents named in the checklist going along with it. It also sends a panel of twelve adjudicators, split into two groups of six (8.2).
6. Thesis. After the Registrar (Evaluation) gives permission, you get three months to submit. For every extension after that, a penal fee of ₹2,000 is charged (8.3.1).

In Group A, the adjudicators are from IISc, the IITs, IIMs, IIITs, NITs, government universities and national labs in India. Group B can include foreign universities within the first 500 in THE or QS rankings. For every adjudicator in the panel, three of their papers are written next to the name.

The colloquium has three chances

VTU uses the pre-submission colloquium to decide if you are ready to submit. When the RAC is not satisfied, it writes down what is missing and asks you to present again within three months. If the second attempt also fails, you get a third and final chance, again within three months. If the third one also goes wrong, the registration is cancelled automatically, without any notice (8.1.3).

So take the first attempt itself seriously. Have all the chapters drafted before you go. Keep your papers ready and the plagiarism report from your centre already clean. The RAC expects to see a finished piece of work. A plan alone is not enough for them.

Papers, by USN batch

Clause 8.1.2 of the 2023 regulations asks for two papers, published or accepted, before the colloquium. The journal should be listed in UGC CARE, or indexed by Scopus, SCI or Web of Science. As proof you show the reprint or the acceptance letter, with a DOI, ORCID or Google Scholar ID.

For newer batches the March 2026 checklist is more strict. Check your University Seat Number for this. In the checklist you will see it written as “XXX20XXXXX and above”. That means any USN where the year code is 20 or more than that. For these scholars one paper in a Scopus journal is required, and the journal has to be in Q1, Q2 or Q3. Older batches have three options. They can give the same kind of Q1 to Q3 paper, or two papers in CARE-listed journals, or two in journals indexed by Scopus, SCI or WoS.

Two conditions are there for all batches. The paper must carry your name and your guide’s name, and the former guide’s name also if you changed guides. The papers are submitted on VTU’s Genuineness Certificate format, signed by your Doctoral Committee.

Journal quartiles are not fixed, and a journal in Q3 when you submit can slip to Q4 later. Keep screenshot of the journal’s quartile as it was on the date your paper got published.

10% or 25%? The plagiarism check

As per clause 8.3.2 of the regulations, VTU itself checks the thesis on licensed software, under its own academic integrity regulations of 2023. In total you get maximum three submissions, and a fee is charged for each check. How much percentage is allowed, the regulations don’t say anywhere. That number comes in two other VTU documents, and each one is giving a different figure.

In the PhD Manual 2024 there is a flowchart, and its pass mark is 10%. The first resubmission costs ₹5,000 and the second ₹10,000. The Ph.D. formats page on the VTU site still describes an older procedure. There the permitted similarity index is 25% or less. On that page the penalty is ₹5,000 first and ₹7,500 after that. Whatever you send the third time is taken as the final one.

We tell VTU scholars to bring the similarity to 10% or below. A thesis at 9% passes under both. At 18% it passes under one and fails under the other, and nobody wants to learn which document the office follows after paying the fee. Run a check on your own draft before the official one, and do the corrections in the chapters first.

Please note when this check happens. As per the 2026 checklist, VTU starts the plagiarism check only after you upload the full final thesis on the portal and your printed copy also reaches the university. By that time any change means extra fee and a lot of running around, so complete all the corrections before you upload.

Uploading without mistakes

After you submit the online upload, the checklist says the link will not be reopened for any reason. Also, the informations you enter there, like name, USN and thesis title, will be printed on your provisional degree certificate and convocation certificate. Type the title in capital letters exactly as in your approval letter, and check the USN two times.

Convert the Word file to PDF using Microsoft Print to PDF, as the checklist says. Online converters are not allowed. The supporting documents are items 1 to 14 on the checklist. Put them in one PDF inside a .zip file, and number each document at the right corner. Even one document in the wrong format is enough for VTU to send the whole file back to your research centre, and they will not process it.

Part-time scholars need one more document, a residence certificate signed by the head of the institute. All scholars have to give the six-monthly progress reports.

Adjudication and the final viva

The Vice-Chancellor selects one adjudicator from Group A and one from Group B. Your supervisor is also an adjudicator, and the co-supervisor too if you have one. Each external adjudicator is asked to send the report within 45 days, and the report must be 250 words or more (8.4.2, 8.4.3). The report can recommend acceptance, minor clarifications at the viva, minor corrections, major corrections with re-evaluation, or rejection. If one external rejects it, a third adjudicator from Group B decides.

The final viva board is chaired by the head of your research centre or your principal (3.5). Your supervisor acts as the convener. The co-supervisor is a member, along with one of the outside adjudicators. The viva happens at the research centre, a VTU regional centre or your supervisor’s institution. Teachers and research scholars are invited to attend (8.5).

First you present your main findings in a short talk, and the invitees ask their questions after that. Then the board examines you by itself, including the questions the adjudicators wrote in their reports. Take your data and analysis files with you, because the board can ask to see them. They can also ask questions outside the thesis. If the board is not satisfied, a second viva is held after three months with the same board. If you don’t attend the second viva, or you fail it, the admission ends.

We would not like you to do the upload alone late in the night, because it cannot be undone. Our thesis formatting service sets your thesis on VTU’s template and checks the PDF with you before it is uploaded. For help with the chapters, see PhD thesis help in Bangalore. Our Bangalore page helps you check if your college is a VTU research centre at all. The Bangalore University guide has the Jnana Bharathi rules, and the formatting checklist has checks that work for any university.