How to Become a Professor: in India, After 12th, Courses, Top Colleges, Jobs and Salary 2023

How to Become a Professor in India Overview

Professors empower their students with a plethora of knowledge that they have gained through books and experience. They are also referred to as the teachers of the highest rank. In India, becoming a professor is challenging but interesting too and the journey enriches you with expertise in the chosen domain. This article will thoroughly guide you regarding the eligibility criteria of a professor, scope of a professor, salary of the professor, and other related topics. 

Who is a Professor?

Professors are the ones who hold the highest rank in academics both at the universities and the post-secondary education and research institutions. Professors demonstrate a holistic behavior before their students to teach them to adhere to the rules and regulations of academics. They guide the students in the right direction and build their interest in the subject matter. However, the process of becoming a professor is not a child's play because it asks for your time, your concentration, and most importantly your patience. 

How to Become a Professor in India Highlights

How to become a Professor in India: Eligibility Criteria

Becoming a professor demands a strong mindset accompanied with sheer dedication towards the goal. Students who wish to acquire the title of a professor in India must keep in mind the below mentioned eligibility criteria-

1. An aspirant must be an undergraduate and postgraduate student in the preferred stream in order to become a professor. However, mere passing marks are not enough. To become a professor, students must complete their under graduation with minimum 50% marks and post-graduation with at least 55% marks only then they will be able to pursue post-graduation, which is the main step.
2. For aspirants, a professional certificate of teaching experience is also required along with the research done independently and certain publications in journals. For the purpose, candidates must seek the assistantships available to them depending upon the departments they have chosen.
3. There are various competitive exams of national and institute that an aspirant must give to become a professor. 

Keynote- Students are suggested to become a part of colleges or universities by working closely with them for more expertise and reliable knowledge. They can also take part in the exams that are arranged for bachelor's, master's, and research to attain more knowledge.

How to Become a Professor in India: Steps to Follow

A profession like professor comprises both excellent education and impeccable research. To attain both, approximately 10 years is required accompanied with utmost patience to accomplish the goal. The year wise break up of 10 years is mentioned below -

1. The first step is under graduation and in India the minimum years to complete any under-graduation course from an esteemed university is 3 years.
2. The second step of becoming a professor is completing a post-graduation degree. In India a course of post-graduation generally requires a duration of time of 2 years.
3. If candidates are inclined towards the research field, they should then do the PhD which takes 3-5 years to complete. PhD cannot be done without pursuing masters.

How to Become a Professor in India Courses

PhD Science Courses

PhD Commerce and Management

PhD Engineering

PhD Arts

How to Become a Professor in India: Top Colleges Offering PhD Courses

Once the candidates clear their PhD entrance exams, they are entitled to get admission in the following colleges -

1. Jai Hind College
2. Bishop Heber College
3. Ahmedabad University
4. Post Graduate institute of Medical Education & research
5. Sri Ramchandra Institute of Higher Education and Research
6. Jawaharlal NeProfessoru University
7. Dr DY Patil Vidyapeeth

How to Become a Professor in India: PhD Entrance Exams

1. IIT JAM
2. GPAT
3. GATE

How to Become a Professor in India: Types of Professor

In India, professors are divided into three faculty ranks:

1. Assistant Professor - They are the youngest faculty members at college and university. Talking about their ranking, they are ahead of the instructors, but are behind an associate professor but they do have exceptional knowledge of their chosen domain.
2. Associate Professor - Being an associate professor is the second step towards becoming a professor. Those assistant professors who receive promotion are called associate professors. Generally, associate professors have at least 8-9 years of experience in teaching students.
3. Professor  - Here comes the most awaited stage of every aspirant, Professor. After indulging for 12-14 years in teaching and publishing their own research in the form of books or research papers, associate professors are then entitled to become a professor.

How to Become a Professor in India: Salary of a Professor

After working hard enough from not leaving any stone unturned to facing every challenge with sheer determination, a professor is entitled to get an average salary of 11.4 lakhs per annum. While a professor holding a title of PhD can get the salary as high as Rs 1673000 yearly.

Organization wise salary 

Designation wise Salary

Experience Wise Salary

How to Become a Professor in India: Top 10 Skills

Being a professor comes with its own whims and challenges and only the person with the following skills can go in the right direction -

1. Subject matter expertise 
2. Teaching Experience
3. Patience
4. Optimistic Approach
5. Better Communication
6. Determination
7. Communication skills
8. Hard Work
9. Goal Achiever
10. Cognitive Ability

Related Article: How to Become a Teacher.

How to Become a Professor in India: Top 5 Recruiters

Following mentioned is the list of the organizations who hire professors -

1. Private Institutions
2. Government Institutions
3. College and Universities
4. Coaching Institutes
5. Research Based Institutions

Lecturer vs Professor

Although both lecturers and professors teach in college, there are some significant differences between both.

 First let's see who the lecturer is and what are his duties to perform.

Lecturer

1. Lecturers are responsible for conducting workshops, take classes on a particular subject.
2. Presenting their works to the students and making them understand about the same. 
3. Lecturers fall at the lowest in the ranking of academicians.
4. They are generally given undergraduate students to teach.
5. Experience wise, they come behind professors.
6. Pay scale of a lecturer is low when compared to that of a professor's.

Professor

1. Perform their own research and publish their own research papers.
2. Focus on the scope of courses for every semester based on their field of scholarly world.
3. Frame the syllabus of the courses they have expertise in and audit the alternates' movement.
4. Help in an organization and make themselves an integral part of administration and committees.
5. Professors are at the highest level of academics.
6. Professors have the most experience in teaching and researching.
7. Pay scale of a professor is comparatively and significantly higher than lecturers.