The University Grants Commission (UGC) today, Wednesday, February 7, extended the cut-off date for the approval of revision in the rates of existing fellowships up to April 8, 2024, after receiving representation from student unions regarding the same.
In a public notice dated February 7, the UGC announced that doctoral and post-doctoral fellows can now claim their pending dues, that is, pre-revised/revised fellowship/house rent allowance (HRA)/contingency, admissible up to December 2023, by February 8, 2024, on Scholarship Fellowship Management Portal (SFMP).
The UGC notice further added that no claim pertaining to the period up to December 2023 will be entertained by the UGC. Earlier, the cut-off date for the same was February 8, 2024.
On February 5, the All India Students' Association (AISA) submitted a memorandum to the UGC, urging an extension in the cut-off date, stating that it has created widespread panic among the UGC National Eligibility Test-Junior Research Fellowship (NET-JRF) holders.
“A narrow window of 20 days (including holidays, further shortening the effective timeline) has been allotted for these tasks. Almost all universities have a lengthy process of documentation and signatures, making it difficult for scholars to claim their arrears and dues on time. It is also difficult for scholars on field work to claim their dues,” the memorandum addressed to the UGC Chairman M Jagadesh Mamidala, said.
Speaking about their concerns, Vikash Kumar, a PhD scholar at Delhi University (DU) and member of AISA, told EdexLive, “The issue is not just limited to DU or any other institute. We recently found out that at JNU (Jawaharlal Nehru University), there are long queues of students trying to submit their forms, this is because all institutes have a staff shortage. UGC workings always create chaos for students whether it be the disbursal of fellowships or other regulations. The fellowship disbursal is quite irregular and that case is more serious for non-NET fellowship.”
The students also added that since the window for approval of JRF fellowship for universities, which was earlier from the 1st to 15th of every month, has been reduced to the 1st to 8th of every month, it has exacerbated the problems.
