Hundreds of aspirants across the State eligible for the University Grants Commission’s Postgraduate Indira Gandhi Scholarship for single girl child have lost the opportunity in the 2014-16 academic year due to the inordinate delay in the completion of admission process for postgraduate programmes in higher educational institutions.
The delay on the part of the higher educational institutions including the Mahatma Gandhi University has resulted in the denial of scholarship to several youngsters before the September 15 deadline. Monday is also the last date for applying for the UGC’s postgraduate merit scholarship for university rank holders.
As per UGC rule, any student who is the only girl child of her parents is eligible for scholarship under the scheme. It is applicable to a student who has taken admission in first year master’s degree programmes in any recognised university or a postgraduate college during the current year. The duration of scholarship is two years for 10 months in each year. Selected students get Rs. 2,000 per month as scholarship.
Provisional admissionThe Mahatma Gandhi University authorities on Friday issued a select directive to the principal of St. Thomas College, Kozhencherry, to provisionally admit a candidate for an M.Sc programme. The student had bagged the first rank in the qualifying examination.
The varsity move is under the scanner as the Registrar issued the select order bypassing the online centralised allotment process (CAP) for postgraduate programmes to give the candidate a chance to apply for the scholarship scheme before Monday.
Interestingly, the authorities gave the nod for provisional admission when the first allotment under CAP for postgraduate programmes is scheduled on September 19. Several other eligible students for both the single girl child and rank holder schemes are running from pillar to post hoping to get an opportunity to apply before the deadline.
But the chances seem bleak as the authorities are yet to take any concrete action.
