Scholarships for research students in IITs, NITs increased

Updated on: Tuesday, October 05, 2010

In an effort to attract more engineering graduates to the field of scientific and technical research, the union HRD ministry has increased the scholarships for junior research fellows (JRFs) and senior research fellows (SRFs) in centrally-funded technical institutions.

Accordingly, BE/BTech graduates with a GATE score (IIT graduates with a CGPA of 8 or above need not appear for GATE) or equivalent qualification will receive stipend of Rs 16,000 per month in their first two years of research in technical institutions under the control of the ministry. Earlier they were entitled to a monthly scholarship of Rs 14,000.

Likewise, the research fellows who have a postgraduate degree in basic sciences along with a pass in the National Eligibility Test (NET) will receive a monthly fellowship of Rs 18,000 up to the fifth year of research. Till now, they were given Rs 14,000 a month in the third and fourth year of research and Rs 15,000 monthly in the final year.

The monthly emolument for researchers with a ME/MTech degree has been increased from Rs 14,000 to Rs 18,000 in the first two years and from Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 in the next two years. These scholars will not be granted financial assistance beyond the fourth year of research.

In a letter on September 30, Pratima Dikshit, Director (technical), HRD ministry, has communicated the revision in scholarship, which will come into retrospective effect from April 2010, to the heads of Indian Institutes of Technology, National Institutes of Technology, Indian Institute of Science, National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research (NITTTR) and other central institutions.

According to professor S Krishnaiah, Dean (academic research), IIT Madras, past experience has shown that the number of students pursuing research studies is more or less the same irrespective of the scholarship offered. However, he suggested that uniform scholarship must be given to research scholars irrespective of their academic qualification. â€œNow a research scholar with a postgraduate degree is awarded a higher scholarship than his/her counterpart who has an undergraduate degree. I believe there should be no differentiation among researchers who have enrolled for a PhD programme. All of them can be given the same Rs 20,000,â€ he argued.

The HRD ministry has advised the institutions to encourage JRFs and SRFs to register for higher degrees and â€œthe tuition fees to undertake these studies may be reimbursed to the student from the contingency grant sanctioned under the project grant, if required.

Scholarships for research students in IITs, NITs increased

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