AISA protests against HRD Ministry's statements on UGC Non-NET Fellowships

Image of AISA protests against HRD Ministry's statements on UGC Non-NET Fellowships | Education News Photo

The HRD Ministry stated here on Friday that the Centre had directed the UGC to continue the Non-NET fellowship,and constituted a committee under the leadership of Gautam Barua, ex-director of IIT Guwahati. The committee reached a common mandate to extend the benefits and opportunities of the Non-NET fellowships to a larger number of universities.

Students marched in protest from UGC to HRD Ministry, alleging non-serious attitude of the government towards restoring Non-NET fellowships. They alleged that these are merely misleading statements by the government, and the fellowship money is being siphoned off to corporates.

On the other hand, the Ministry reiterated that they shall not reduce the fellowship awards, rather they shall be increased. Also, the guidelines for coverage, award and administration of Non-NET fellowships shall be improved to enable enhancement in these fellowships. 

The All India Students' Association (AISA) said that the MHRD in its brief mentioned that the students met the ministers regarding discontinuation of the National Eligibility Test (NET). Rather, the students have no concerns with the suspension of the NET examination. The fact that the government is completely oblivious of the students' agenda for discussion showcases its insensitive and careless attitude towards their demands. This attitude was highly condemned and hence the students came out in protests.

The mention of "improving the guidelines for coverage, award and administration of Non-NET fellowships" in MHRD's brief was also highly criticized by the Students' Association. The Association specified that they had categorically demanded the criterion of selection to be solely based on being research scholar in any Indian university. For the purpose of selecting research scholars, every university has its own set of criteria. This should be the only basis of selection. Any other procedure to awarding fellowships is an attempt to income exclusionary criterion such as economic and other criterion as mentioned earlier by MHRD.

The All India Students' Association also pointed out that the Ministry is completely mute on whether the Non-NET scholarships shall be awarded to all students and researchers taking admission in 2016, without any condition. The silence only points to the fact that not all researchers shall be provided with the scholarships. This hence shall create a rift between the existing students (who are currently getting scholarships) and the future students (who may/ may not get scholarships).