More Males Register for Ph.D. Courses than Females: HRD Ministry
- Males are constantly dominating Ph.D. registrations in India while females are still lagging behind in the same.
- The HRD Ministry is making continuous efforts to encourage women in research activities.
According to a recent survey and the official data released by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD Ministry), it is the male candidates that dominate Ph.D. in India as compared to females.
If the trend is observed carefully, it is evident that the overall number of Ph.D. registrations has also increased. Below if the data that indicates the same.
Students Enrolled in Ph.D. Courses in Last Three Years:
Academic Session | Total Number of Students Enrolled in Ph.D. Course |
2014-15 | 1,00,792 |
2015-16 | 1,09,552 |
2016-17 | 1,23,712 |
The data also indicates that the majority of candidates joined state universities in India for their Ph.D. course dream as compared to the institutes of national importance. For instance, 41,566 students joined the Ph.D. course in state universities during the academic session 2016-17, while 26,012 students joined the Ph.D. course in the institutes of national importance.
Also Read: Arts and Science Courses Emerge as Most Popular UG Streams
On the other hand, the central universities in India enrolled 17,715 students in Ph.D., while 16,595 students joined private universities in India. A similar trend has been witnessed in the last three years.
The data clearly indicates that the participation of women in higher studies at the Ph.D. level is less. While the proportion of females in UG and PG courses is high, the total number of women interested in pursuing research is low. The reasons can be directly linked to females dropping out of their studies after UG or PG. A large proportion of them get married and give up on their aspiration pursue Ph.D.
Also Read: IIM Women Intake Drops Down by 4%
With a motive to encourage girls to study in premier institutes, IITs have increased the intake for female candidates. This initiative will help drive them to come up with innovative ideas and take up research eventually.