PhD Experience at Guru Nanak Dev University: A Personal Reflection

My PhD journey at Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU) from GNDU PhD Admission to the Sad End.

Disclaimer:

I’m not sharing this out of anger, but to raise awareness, because I noticed something disturbing: while other professors’ students were finishing their doctorates in under four years, those of Dr. Sunita Gupta at Department of Psychology GNDU, my ex-professor, often took six years or more.

My time at GNDU taught me some difficult lessons that can help you to understand GNDU research environment and PhD challenges at GNDU.

Keep in mind when choosing PhD supervision at GNDU

1. PhD admissions at GNDU is easy.
2. Guru Nanak Dev University’s PhD atmosphere is not very outstanding.
3. PhD supervision at GNDU is full of Corruption and errors.
4. PhD student get no support at GNDU.
5. There are more PhD challenges at GNDU than the facilities.

How to chose a PhD supervisor?

• First, steer clear of stereotypical professors—the ones who constantly insist they’re the only ones who are right.
• Second, avoid GNDU for a PhD, as in year 2022 GNDU refused to award the PhD to 4 more people.
• Why you think you will not face it?
• OK let’s believe you choose GNDU and now encountering a BAD PHD SUPERVISOR, you should immediately change supervisors.
• Their lack of objectivity can mess with your PhD progress and, even worse, your mental health.
• Go for an optimistic supervisor; mine wasn’t, most PhD supervision at GNDU are corrupt, some use male PhD scholars as domestic servant some exploits women by delaying their work.

My story: Once my professor Dr. Gupta told me that some senior, retired psychology professors—a husband and wife—asked her where she sent her students’ theses for evaluation. She explained that she didn’t disclose this information due to “ethics” concerns.

However, she instructed all her PhD students to select two foreign professors for their own evaluations! Talk about a double standard.

Let look at my PhD supervisors’ unprofessional behaviors:

• She kept reminding me that I hadn’t given her any valuable gift items, unlike other students.
• She was also extremely superstitious.
• I once gave her two kilos of unripe mangoes for pickling (collected from university hostel), and she insisted I bring sweets too, because she wouldn’t accept sour mangoes without them.
• She was also incredibly judgmental.
• She actually said my thesis would have 50% plagiarism without even looking at it!

When Dr Gupta started avoiding me, I knew she wouldn’t let me submit my PhD:

• In the days before the deadline, she became completely unreachable.
• On the final day, she called me on a lab technician’s phone and began demeaning me, using language I had never heard from her before.
• Before that, she had been sending messages to me through a junior PhD scholar, avoiding direct contact, possibly to prevent me from recording her.
• This junior, who I usually avoid, came to my room and told me my “conduct” wasn’t good!
• I was shocked. I’ve never harassed anyone or done anything antisocial in my life.
• Did my supervisor say something negative about me to him?

Do good and throw it in the sea:

• She pressured me to quit my first full-time job to help her with her house construction work, running errands, and even pay her bills.
• Despite my thesis being over 170 pages, she and her mother told me it was “thin” and needed “thickening.”
• Just two days before the deadline, a witness was present at her house when they made this absurd demand.
• She also utilized the names of the VC and Dean to exert control over us.
• One time, she yelled at me, saying the VC and Dean had declared the conference my startup organized with GNDU as “null and void”!
• This was after the university had already approved it.
• I emailed the Home Ministry of India to clarify, and they confirmed that we didn’t need specific permission for virtual conferences.
• After this, she completely disengaged from me.

Hope that she killed:

• Then, two months later, she unexpectedly contacted me, requesting pictures from my startup’s conference for the NAAC team’s visitation.
• This gave me some hope, and I presented my work to the department.
• She set a pre-submission date and then cancelled it.
• Then, due to minor citation issues, she instructed me to retract my paper, threatening to “hit me with my paper in my face” if I didn’t comply.
• She disregarded the UPI funding I had mentioned in my paper, as well as the ethical clearance from the psychology department.
• The problem lies in the fact that the ethical committee came into existence after I began my research.
• If my work was so bad, why did they grant me extensions?
• I even know of another scholar from the chemistry department who mentioned UPI funding in their paper without any repercussions.
• The most shocking part was when she insisted on seeing my startup’s bank passbook or statement, using the vice chancellor’s name as leverage.
• When I refused, she blocked me from completing my PhD.
• She was using her position and the university’s authority for her own personal gain.
• I had organized two International Multidisciplinary Virtual Conferences for GNDU through my startup, without charging the university a single rupee.
• What did I receive as a reward?
• Instead of giving me credit, they labeled me as corrupt.
• Additionally, her own mother informed me that Dr. Gupta found my thesis to be “thin” and suggested it should be “thick.”
• Her standard for quality was the page count!

It was absurd. Do you doubt me? Search www.Sodhganga.com, the Indian government thesis library, for her students’ theses with three filters. “University name” > “Department name” > “Professor name” The substandard PhD thesis, spanning 300–400 pages and submitted by her students, will astound you.

1. After retracting my paper, I submitted it to another journal, explaining the situation.
2. They published it within a week through a fast-tracked review.
3. But even then, Dr. Gupta still wouldn’t let me submit my thesis.
4. My advice to anyone starting a PhD: first, politely ask your supervisor for timely help.
5. If that doesn’t work, write a formal letter to the university to change supervisors.
6. If the university doesn’t act, go to the UGC. Don’t suffer in silence.
7. Do you think professors like this are beneficial for anyone’s mental health?
8. Even after rehab institutions and hospitals rejected my further study request in their centers, she kept asking me to get big sample size for years.
9. If you don’t play the game and your supervisor doesn’t like you, pursuing a PhD at an Indian university can be challenging.

I recommend going to a private or foreign university if you have the chance.

• GNDU itself isn’t bad, but the faculty makes all the difference.
• If you choose to study here, pick a supervisor who lets their students finish in four years.
• If you see a professor with a track record of students struggling to submit their PhD work even after five years, run the other way.
• This whole event left me with PTSD and sadness. In India, my institution has hired the daughter of high court justices as a dean of the law faculty, and justice is rendered only to politicians and influential people. The rest of us are servants.
• I’ll keep sharing my story because many PhD aspirants need to know what might happen at GNDU.

And I’d love to hear about your PhD experiences at Indian government universities, too.

My PhD journey at Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU) from GNDU PhD Admission to the Sad End. Disclaimer: I’m not sharing this out of anger, but to raise awareness, because I noticed something disturbing: while other professors’ students were finishing…