The higher education regulator has amended regulations to give 70% weightage to performance in the written entrance test and 30% to oral interview for the final selection of a candidate The University Grants Commission (UGC) on Thursday rolled back the selection rules for research students, scrapping oral interviews, or viva voce, as the sole criterion for admission to Ph.D and M.Phil programmes The higher education regulator has amended the UGC (Minimum Standards and Procedure for Award of M.Phil/PhD Degree) Regulations 2016 to give 70% weightage to performance in the written entrance test and 30% to oral interview for the final selection of a candidate The Commission has also relaxed five percentage points in the minimum marks to be scored in the written test taken by SC, ST and OBC candidates. This means that while a general candidate will have to secure at least 50% in the entrance examination to qualify for the interview or viva voce, a candidate from the reserved category wi