SNU grants paternity leave
By Lee Kyung-min
Seoul National University (SNU) will grant paternity leaves for undergraduates and graduate students, the university said Thursday.
This comes as a measure to better help students deal with the dichotomy of parenting and studying.
Starting from this semester, male students with child younger than eight years of age will be able to take a leave of up to one year.
Female students can take one-semester or one-year maternity leave separately up to three years.
The previous rule for leave of absence was that undergraduates and doctoral students can have it up to three years and graduate students up to two years.
The paternity or maternity leave won’t be deducted as part of general leaves.
“Students with children have complained that it’s hard to manage studies at school and work at home. We hope the new regulation helps the students,” said an official from administration office at the university.
Prior to this, the Anti-Corruption & Civil Rights Commission last year advised 47 universities nationwide to introduce a regulation regarding maternity or paternity leave.