UGC brings changes in PhD norms - Source - Apr 13 2016 : The Times of India

Apr 13 2016 : The Times of India (Ahmedabad) UGC brings changes in PhD norms   Acting on suggestions made by HRD minister Smriti Irani last week, the University Grants Commission (UGC) on Tuesday decided to relax criteria for women and disabled candidates pursuing MPhil and PhD degrees. Women and those with more than 40% disability will now get a year extra to complete their MPhil papers and two years more to submit PhD theses.All women candidates will also be provided maternity leave and child care leave for up to 240 days once while they pursue these two degrees. In case a woman scholar needs to relocate because of marriage or otherwise during her study , she would be allowed to get research data transferred to the university to which she intends to shift pro vided all other regulatory conditions are followed and the research work does not pertain to a project secured by the parent institution or her supervisor from any funding agency. The scholar will also have to give credit to her parent guide and institution for the part of research already done. In another important de cision, the full commis sion of UGC also decid ed that award of degrees to those registered for MPhilPhD programmes prior to July 11, 2009 will be governed by the provisions of the then existing ordinancesbylawsregulations and will be exempted from the requirement of the minimum eligibility condition of National Eligibility TestState level eligibility test for recruitment and appointment of assistant professor or equivalent positions in universitiescolleges and other higher educational institutions subject to few conditions. In 2010, the regulation of July 11, 2009 was amended by which NETstate level eligibility test was made mandatory uniformly.