Access and Participation Plan for Women

As per the principles stated in our Non-Discrimination and Gender Equity Policy, AMRITA University is committed to ensuring equal and equitable opportunities for all applicants and students, regardless of their gender. The following plan addresses the specific question of women’s applications, acceptance, entry, and participation within AMRITA, so as to eliminate any potential gap based on gender.

Our Principles

Our Chancellor’s vision for gender equity has always been guiding AMRITA’s philosophy and functioning since its creation. AMRITA seeks to ensure that all female students achieve their potential, through full and active participation. We are committed to addressing any kind of barriers, and to make the student community more self-assured on these questions.

As a result, access and participation of women candidates and students to AMRITA’s programs have always been very high. AMRITA is strongly committed to maintaining such outcomes and has implemented a number of mechanisms for that purpose.

Assessment

Students’ admissions are purely based on the scores obtained by applicants, both male and female, in competitive exams such as Amrita Engineering Entrance Examination (AEEE), CAT, MAT, NEET, etc.

In 2019, the male to female students ratio in UG and PG programs was 56:44, as per NIRF 2020 rankings data.

Although this rate is already a significant proof of AMRITA’s commitment and effective implementation of gender equity, we have been constantly striving to improve it to 50:50, as expected by NIRF.

Monitoring and Action Plan

AMRITA has implemented a number of procedures and processes in order to closely and regularly monitor women’s access and participation throughout all stages of their studies. Evaluation of the metrics and outcomes is regularly conducted in order to maintain and improve current levels of successful outcomes as well as to address core inequalities in access and participation, from a very early stage.

These include:

• A tracking system and set of schemes on women’s likelihood of graduation, developed by Amrita Technologies. This integrated world-class University Management System (AUMS), includes an e-learning platform and enables the tracking of students’ progress at any time. It supports AMRITA’s major administrative and learning management systems and includes admission module, administration module, academics module, accounts module, examination module, and other modules:
• https://www.amrita.edu/unsdg/sdg5/performance-tracking-and-management
• Periodic evaluation of data on access and participation of women throughout all stages of students’ lifecycle and analysis of potential gaps and barriers in women’s application and participation process, if any, and ways to address them.
• Overall needs assessments and mapping of vulnerabilities, based on the Centre for Gender Equality and Women Empowerment (CWEGE)’s AWESOME Framework (Gressel, et al., 2020) carried out annually on a multi-campus level. This needs assessment includes vulnerability tracking and assessment of both men and women, students, faculty, staff, and facilities in order to best understand any issues that may inhibit either gender from fulfilling their highest potential both personally and academically.
• Specific monitoring is undertaken by each school and department on admission and retention outcomes.
• Drafting of yearly reports included in AMRITA’s annual plans.

AMRITA has also set up a variety of programs and initiatives that help women access the same opportunities as male students, including for example:

• Possibility for female Ph.D. students getting pregnant during their studies to temporarily suspend their research and join another cohort at a later time.
• Child Care services for female students having children, available on campus: https://www.amrita.edu/care/cr7/7.1.1/7.1.1-d Daycare center for young Children MainReport.pdf
• Academic support and other financial resources such as potential scholarships for female students facing financial difficulties or lack of financial support from their families decided on a merits basis.
• Equal access to education and opportunities, including access to mentor programs designed to prepare students for top-positions or further studies.
• Equal access to facilities, academic support, social services, technology, accommodation and transportation, and other resources provided by AMRITA.
• Gender Sensitization Plan conducted every year, including gender equity communication and promotion with activities such as workshops with students and staff, regular awareness-raising, promotion by faculty members of fair representations for leadership roles, impartial participation and gender balance in team projects, providing a network of gender equality advisers for research and coursework, and promoting gender parity at the governance level within the student code of conduct promotes gender parity: https://www.amrita.edu/gender-plan