An integrated microwave-ultraviolet (MW-UV) reactor has been developed indigenously and used for the degradation of aqueous p-cresol. The p-cresol degradation is carried out in six phases, namely (i) microwave irradiation (MW), (ii) photodegradation with UV light (UV), (iii) simultaneous microwave and ultraviolet radiations (MW-UV), (iv) microwave in presence of TiO2 (MW-TiO2), (v) photodegradation by UV and TiO2 (UV-TiO2), and (vi) simultaneous MW and UV irradiations in presence of TiO2 (MW-UV-TiO2). The order of the degradation efficiency is found to be MW-UV-TiO2>UV-TiO2>MW-TiO2>UV-MW>UV>MW. The complete degradation of p-cresol is obtained by MW-UV-TiO2 and it is three-fold economical in catalyst requirement than UV-TiO2. The degradation of p-cresol followed pseudo first order reaction and the reaction rate (k) for MW-UV-TiO2 is found to be 3 times greater than that for UV-TiO2. The MW-UV-TiO2 is also 2.3 times efficient in the removal of total organic carbon than UV-TiO2. It is also observed that the unit operating cost of conventional UV-TiO2 and MW-UV-TiO2 is almost same.