The School provides facilities to undertake research work leading to the award of a Ph.D. degree in the fields of Architecture, Physical Planning, Urban Planning, Regional Planning, Environmental Planning, Housing, Transport Planning, Urban Design, Architectural Conservation, Landscape Architecture, Industrial Design and Building Engineering and Management. About 30 scholars have been awarded the doctoral degrees from the School, the first one awarded in 1991.
A candidate could submit her Ph.D. thesis after a minimum period of two years, and within five years from the date of registration. In case of a candidate without master’s degree, the minimum period for submission of thesis is three years. In cases where candidate requires more than five years for submission of her thesis, she could do so, if the Departmental Research Committee (DRC) recommends her case and the approval of the Committee for Doctoral Programmes (CDP) is secured.
No candidate shall join any other course of study or appear in any other examination conducted by another university or institution of higher learning and research being run by any public body without permission. In case of violation of these requirements, the School reserves the right to cancel the registration and recover all payments made to the candidate under the programme.
All candidates are required to work full time on doctoral research work in the first three semesters after registration. However, the residence requirement of three semesters may be reduced to two semesters on the recommendations of the DRC. But the candidate must satisfactorily complete compulsory, optional and other recommended course work, maintain close contact with the Thesis Advisor (s), organize seminars and take active part in seminars, workshops, and other academic programmes of the School, and show satisfactory progress in research work.
Faculty of the School registered for Ph.D. degree programmes shall be deemed to be in residence for the required period of time. In exceptional cases, the period of residence for a faculty candidate may be reduced on the recommendations of the DRC with the approval of the Chairman CDP.
During the period of residence a candidate may be permitted by the Thesis Advisor to go out of Delhi from time to time, as may be required for research purposes. Outstation filed work of the candidate exceeding one month may be permitted with the knowledge and approval of the concerned Head of the Department of Studies.