'Increase non-NET fellowships, extend time for PhD submissions': JNUSU to UGC

NEW DELHI: The Jawaharlal Nehru Students Union (JNUSU), on Thursday, wrote to the University Grants Commission (UGC) asking the higher education regulator to increase the non-NET fellowships for PhD students and to allow them extension for the time lost during Covid-19 years.

The union, in the letter, said that the Non-Net Fellowships offered by the UGC have not seen an increase since 2006. The UGC provides Non-NET fellowship of Rs 8,000 per month with contingency of Rs 10,000 per annum for science subjects and Rs 8,000 per annum for humanities and social science subjects. These are for researchers who don't get scholarships through the UGC-NET exam.

“We would like to draw your attention to the Non-NET Fellowships, which has remained unchanged at Rs 8,000 since 2006. Indian researchers are currently facing challenges due to inflation and increasing living costs on an annual basis, which impacts their ability to focus on research and development efforts,” JNUSU wrote in the letter.

The JNUSU also asked the UGC to review fellowships every four years considering rising inflation and living costs, and ensure regular disbursements of fellowships without delays.

In addition to this, the students’ union asked the UGC to reinstate the Maulana Azad National Fellowship (MANF), which the central government discontinued in December 2022 “citing overlaps with various other schemes”.

Extension to MPhil-PhD

The union also requested the UGC to grant extensions to the integrated Mphil-PhD batch of 2017 and PhD batch of 2019 as they were the ones who suffered the most during Covid-19 induced lockdown. The union said that the enforced lockdown and gradual reopening resulted “in the loss of a crucial period of research of not less than 1.5 years” for these students.

JNUSU said students were not able to access libraries and archives due to the lockdown and they were also “limited in their capacity to do fieldwork”. They said that although the students can request extension through the research advisory committee(RAC), most students are “not in a position to submit substantial work to the committee” as is required.