The University Grants Commission or UGC, the national higher education funding and regulating agency, has released a list of schemes for which the funding will be continued. According to a Commission official, the 'continuation of the schemes given till September 30' is an 'interim measure' due to the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic.
He also said that decision regarding some schemes is under consideration and the announcement regarding those will be published soon after a decision has been made.
The schemes which have been considered to continue include various fellowships and scholarships like UGC research awards for faculty, fellowships for post-doctoral researchers, fellowships for doctoral students, scholarships for post-graduate students, Maulana Azad national fellowship for minority' students, national fellowship for students with disabilities, national fellowship for SC candidates and national fellowship for other backward classes.
Other schemes also include Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), National Skills Qualification Framework, Swachh Bharat- Swasth Bharat Abhivan and Consortium for Academic and Research Ethics (CARE).
"Every scheme or scholarship or fellowship has its own guidelines on how it should be run. It was the time of the year to make a decision on the continuation of schemes, and as part of that, this announcement has been made as an interim measure," the official said.
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He also said the continuation of the schemes after September will be decided later.
When asked about an anticipated fund cuts towards its various projects in view of the coronavirus outbreak in the country which affected more than , the official said the decision is completely depended upon the Ministry of Human Resource Development or MHRD.
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"We only distribute the funds. The decision in this regard will be taken up at the government level from the MHRD," he said.
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