Govt tightens rules for foreign scholarship nomination

The rule will be applicable for the nomination of candidates in cases where the donor country offers scholarship along with seats in their higher education institutions to the nominated candidates.

Students, who have got their degree from yet-to-be-accredited higher education institutions in India, will not get an opportunity to study abroad on a foreign government scholarship offered by the “donor” country along with seats in their institutions under bilateral, cultural and educational exchange programmes.

Students whose university or college do not figure in the all India ranking list of higher education institutions, released by the Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry every year, will also not be eligible to avail such an opportunity.

Students from the non-accredited institutions, however, can apply for their nomination only in the case where a foreign government offers a scholarship but not an admission in their institutions.

In such cases, the students will have to first secure admission in the participating institution before applying for his or her nomination for the scholarship online here in India.

The HRD ministry has revised the rules for selection and nomination of students for foreign scholarships from this year.

“Students who have completed their qualifying examination either from the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) / National Board of Accreditation (NBA) accredited institutions or institutes covered under the National Institutional Ranking Framework/ Institute of National Importance/ Central University/ Centrally funded technical institute would only be considered for nomination,” the revised rules stipulate.

This rule will be applicable for the nomination of candidates in cases where the donor country offers scholarship along with seats in their higher education institutions to the nominated candidates.

For the drawing of merit list of such candidates, the weightage would be given to the candidates' Class X, Class XII (10+2) and the last qualifying examination.

“Candidates who secure the highest marks would be considered for nomination,” the revised rules provide.

The changes in rules may come as a set back to a large number of students whose institutions or programmes have not yet been accredited by the NAAC or the NBA.

A large number of higher education institutions in the country continue to remain unaccredited even as the central government made it mandatory for all universities and colleges in 2012.

As per statistics, just 323 universities out of a total 903 have so far been accredited by the NAAC. The number of accredited colleges out of a total 39,050 have come at just 7,473.

While the NAAC conducts the institutional assessment and accreditation of the universities and colleges, the NBA carries out programmatic accreditation of technical programmes and courses.