: With an aim to promote participation in research, the HRD Ministry has decided to give additional time to women and persons with disabilities to complete their M.Phil and Ph.D, Union Minister Smriti Irani said on Monday.
Speaking at an event to release the first-ever rankings of domestic institutes, Ms. Irani said that many women are getting enrolled in higher education but not many are seen in faculty of colleges and universities.
She said her ministry has requested UGC to consider relaxing norms so as to enable women to compete M.Phil and Ph.D “in a proactive fashion”.
“In terms of M.Phil, for two years we have extended that limit to three years and in Ph.D, we are hoping to increase it to eight years instead of six,” she said.
Ms. Irani said female students will also be given maternity leave of 240 days which will be excluded from their total time of study.
“We are also going to ensure that we give them allowance for migration from one university to another, given that the facilities within the area they are working on is available in the university they are migrating to,” she said.
The ministry has also requested UGC to accord autonomous status to colleges which have been granted the highest grade, she said.
