The University Grants Commission (UGC) has finalised that international students and retired professors are not allowed to take non-NET research fellowships for Ph.D. and M.Phil programmes. On the other hand, Junior Research Fellows or JRFs will receive a sum of Rs. 25,000 per month and 30 percent House Rent Allowance (HRA). These candidates will also receive a contingency grant for the first two years which will be granted under National Eligibility Test or NET fellowships.
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Similarly, senior research fellows will receive a sum of Rs. 28,000 per month, contingency grant and 30 percent HRA. On the other hand, non-NET fellows will receive an amount of Rs. 8,000 per month for Ph.D. and Rs. 5,000 for M.Phil. UGC had announced the discontinuation of non-NET fellowships in the year 2015 due to the shortage of funds. However, the non-NET research aspirants protested against the move of UGC, and HRD Ministry was forced to appoint a review committee to look into the issue.
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UGC further indicated that it has been receiving requests from various individuals regarding the applicability of the scheme of non-NET fellowship for doing Ph.D. or M.Phil programme. However, UGC clarified that international students and retired professors are not eligible for non-NET research.
Recently, UGC conducted National Eligibility Test or NET 2017 and around 7.9 lakh candidates took the exam. Surprising, around 4,500 students opted for Yoga as a subject in NET. The government is also planning to bring reforms in UGC after the Union Budget 2017-18 was announced, so that number of institutes of higher learning can be granted autonomy status.
