: 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 rankings of domestic institutes, Ms. Irani said that many women are getting enrolled for higher education but not many are seen in the faculty.
She said her ministry has requested UGC to consider relaxing norms so as to enable women to complete M.Phil and Ph.D “in a proactive fashion.”
“For M.Phil, we have extended the time limit to three years from two years and for Ph.D, we are hoping to increase it to eight years from six,” she said. Ms. Irani said women students would also be given maternity leave of 240 days which will be excluded from their total time of study.
“We are also going to allow migration from one university to another, if the facilities for their research are available there,” she said.
The UGC, she added, has been asked to accord autonomy to top colleges.
