Hyderabad: Students have tough time, as Centre & State silent on scholarship disbursal

Students have tough time, as Centre & State silent on scholarship disbursal
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Students have tough time, as Centre & State silent on scholarship disbursal

Highlights

Confused and cornered, students depending on the Central and the State government scholarships and fee reimbursement schemes to continue studies in Telangana have been having a tough time.

Hyderabad: Confused and cornered, students depending on the Central and the State government scholarships and fee reimbursement schemes to continue studies in Telangana have been having a tough time.

Students pursuing research studies in Osmania and other State universities have been receiving non-NET scholarships. They are offered two kinds of fellowships.

The National Eligibility Test (NET) is being conducted by the National Testing Agency and the University Grants Commission (UGC). Qualifying in the test makes post-graduates eligible for the Junior Research Fellowship (JRF).

Besides, passing of the NET is a mandatory criterion for direct recruitment for the assistant professorship. However, only less than seven per cent of students of the total candidates who appeared and qualified in the NET have the opportunity to avail themselves of both the JRF and Assistant Professorship eligibility

Speaking to The Hans India, State Students' Federation of India (SFI) president RL Murthy said, earlier, the UGC had been providing non-NET fellowships of Rs 8,000 a month to bright students scoring a good percentage of marks in their respective subjects at PG level. This helped many students studying in Osmania and other State universities to pursue research.

However, the UGC discontinued the non-NET fellowships. That apart, students from the BC, SC and ST communities were also relying on the special schemes, like Rajeev Gandhi Scholarship, Indian Council for Social Sciences (ICSSR) scholarship.

Recently, the Centre changed the nomenclature of the Rajeev Gandhi Scholarship and made it a national-level scholarships for the SC, ST and OBCs. However, " there has been some delay. Funds for the scholarships have been released irregularly for the past one year or so," said an OU administration official.

This is giving a tough time for students pursuing M Phil and PhD courses.

They had gone through the selection process for the ICCSR fellowships last year. But, to date, the results were not announced. But the council has given a fresh notification seeking applications for the scholarships for the current academic year.

The State government has neither a special provision to provide scholarships for the research students, nor it is making any special allocation to support research activities in the State universities.

Besides, private unaided colleges have been pressuring students only on the State government's fee reimbursement scheme to study under-graduate and post-graduate courses to pay the fee.

Colleges have been mounting pressure on students claiming that about Rs 3,000 crore from the State government is due towards the fee reimbursement scheme. Hence, they are not releasing certificates and degrees awarded to them unless they clear the dues, Murthy added.

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