Scholarship fails to find takers for pure science

Updated on: Thursday, June 09, 2011

All HSC students received their marksheets on Monday morning at their respective colleges, but a selected few from the science stream were also handed a special certificate. These were students who scored above 80% in the exams. Each certificate mentioned they were eligible for an annual Rs 80, 000 scholarship for five years, should they be interested in pursuing a degree in pure and natural science.

The central government’s department of science and technology this year initiated this scheme of Scholarship for Higher Education under Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE), where the top 1% of the school board at class XII level would be awarded this scholarship. “The purpose was to encourage students to consider courses under pure and natural science. Students can also enroll in integrated master’s level programmes under this scholarship,” said Ujjwaladevi Patil, chairperson of the board, Pune. The Maharashtra board has been the first to implement this scheme and close to 13, 300 students across the state have been informed about it this year.

At KJ Somaiya College of Science and Commerce, 165 students were awarded the certificate. “Students are still running after engineering and other such courses, forgetting that pure science also has a lot of scope,” said Vijay Joshi, principal of KJ Somaiya College. At TP Bhatia College, Kandivli, where 72 were offered the scholarship, there were few takers. “At this point, students have already decided what they want to do in future. Next year onwards we will inform students about this scheme at the beginning of the academic session itself,” said college principal Sangeeta Srivastav.

Kirti Narain, principal of Jai Hind College, Churchgate, feels students may change their views. “Those who appeared for competitive exams are waiting for their results. If they don’t make it to good colleges, I’m sure they’ll consider this scholarship seriously,” she said. Students who scored above 80% in class XII science stream this year and want to pursue a degree in basic and natural science (mathematics or statistics, physics, chemistry) or life sciences (botany or zoology) in any university or college in the country can register themselves on http://www.inspiredst.gov.in/requirement.html to avail the scholarship.

Scholarship fails to find takers for pure science

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