PhD Programme is divided into three stages. These are:

Stage I: Ph.D. Course work
The PhD course work at TERI SAS is designed to develop rigorous research and analytical skills among the students and enable them with necessary research analytical and methodological skill sets. The Ph.D. Course work is governed by the ‘TERI School of Advanced Studies Ph.D. Regulations-2019’.

Ph.D. Course work structure and requirement
The credit assigned to the Ph.D. course work shall be a minimum of 8 credits and a maximum of 16 credits. The course requirement will be prescribed by the Departmental Research Committee (DRC) on the recommendations of the Students Research Committee (SRC). The Ph.D. course work must be completed within the first two semesters from the date of registration.
Every Ph.D. student must take the following mandatory courses.
a) Research Methodology – 3 Credits (Credit only course)
b) Research and Publication Ethics - 2 Credits (Credit or audit course)
c) Quantitative Research Method – minimum 3 Credits from the list of the applicable quantitative methods courses.

Apart from the above, Ph.D. students can take ‘Communication Skills’ as non-mandatory course. Other advanced level courses from the list of courses offered for Master’s Programmes may also be prescribed by SRC after considering the student’s background in relation to the proposed topic of research.
The list of available courses in DEE under Quantitative Methods category are
• Environmental Statistics (4 credits)
• Multivariate Data Analysis (3 credits)
• Optimization techniques for energy management and planning (3 credits)
• Applied Numerical Methods (3 credits)
• Stochastic Modelling (4 credits)
• Spatiotemporal Data Analysis (3 credits)

Stage II: Research proposal defense and research work
• A student will be permitted to appear for defending the research proposal only after he/she has completed the Ph.D. course work as prescribed by the SRC.
• As a part of the research proposal defense, a draft research proposal must be prepared by the student in consultation with the Supervisor(s) and duly approved by SRC members.
• The Supervisor will schedule the research proposal defense activity before a panel comprising of SRC members and an external expert if supervisor has requested so.
• After the satisfactory defense, the student will be required to submit his/her final research proposal and related documents to the DRC with due approval from the Supervisor. The final research proposal must be submitted to the DRC within a period of 24 months from the date of registration in the Ph.D. programme.
• During Ph.D. programme, the student shall appear before the SRC at least once in each semester to make a presentation of the progress of his/her work. This process will continue until the thesis submission.

Stage III: Thesis submission
• Ph.D. scholars may submit his/her thesis at any time if he/ has completed the minimum period of registration and complied with all the necessary requirements as specified in “TERI School of Advanced Studies Ph.D. Regulations-2019” (and subsequent amendments). Prior to the thesis submission, the scholar shall make a presentation in the Department before the DRC. A Ph.D. student must submit his/her thesis within the stipulated period, failing which his/her registration will be considered null and void.

Additional Information The detailed information can be found in TERI School of Advanced Studies PhD Regulations - 2019.

Course Reviewer’s
• Prof. Bishwajit Bhattacharjee, Civil Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi
• Prof. AL Ramanathan, School of Environmental Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University
• Prof. Atiqur Rehman, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Jamia Millia Islamia
• Prof. A K Keshari, Civil Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi