Coaching Schemes For Sc/st/obc (non-creamy Layer) & Minority Students For Universities(Csmsu)

Overview

About Csmsu

The University Grants Commission takes no application from a student under these coaching schemes and pays a student nothing. The grant goes to a university or a college, which runs the coaching centre and then invites students into it, so the only useful question is whether your own institution has a sanctioned centre, and the people who know are its coaching coordinator and its equal opportunity or SC/ST cell. Which of the three components that centre runs then decides what you can enrol in, and a college centre works to lower ceilings and a tighter eligibility rule than a university one.

The Commission funds coaching under three separate heads, and its own bureau page still describes them as schemes that were once part of a merged grant and were later "implemented independently by a dedicated cell of UGC", each carrying its own grant (University Grants Commission, State University bureau). The heads are remedial coaching at UG and PG level, coaching classes for entry into services, and coaching for the National Eligibility Test or a State Eligibility Test.

Each head does a different job. Remedial coaching is catch-up teaching in the subjects a student is already registered for, run outside the regular timetable, aimed at comprehension, language and lab technique so that failure and dropout rates fall. Entry into services is exam preparation for Group A, B and C recruitment, oriented to a named examination such as the civil services or bank recruitment. NET or SET coaching exists to widen the pool of category candidates who qualify to be appointed as lecturers.

The rules were issued as two documents, not one. The guideline the scheme record below draws on is the one written for universities (UGC, Guidelines for Coaching Schemes for SC/ST/OBC (Non-Creamy Layer) and Minority Students for Universities, full text). A parallel guideline sets different ceilings and a different eligibility floor for colleges (UGC, Guidelines for Coaching Schemes for SC/ST/OBC (Non-Creamy Layer) and Minorities for Colleges). Both were framed for the XII Plan, 2012 to 2017. If you study in a college affiliated to a university rather than in a university department, it is the college text that binds the centre you would attend, and its ceilings are the lower pair.

Who runs it

Provider

At a glance

Key details

Calendar

Important dates

Neither guideline sets a season for proposals, so the dates worth tracking are the Commission's own continuation decisions rather than a deadline. The Commission approved carrying its schemes past 31 March 2020 and up to 30.09.2020, with the coaching schemes listed as a single item covering all three components for universities and colleges (UGC Commission minutes, 09 April 2020). A later public notice extended the schemes in its annexure up to 31.03.2024, and there the coaching entry is titled for colleges (UGC Public Notice, 28 April 2023).

Read that as a scheme running on rolling extensions rather than a fixed calendar. The university guideline itself says assistance is available up to the end of the XII Plan, so every year of funding since 2017 has depended on a continuation decision of this kind. A fresh call for proposals after the 2024 extension is not something that can be pointed to, and that absence is not the same as a discontinuation order, which has not been published either. Anyone counting on the scheme should ask their institution's Registrar what its current sanction position is.

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

An institution qualifies for the grant under one rule and fills its classroom under another, and the two tests share nothing. UGC status decides whether the money can be sanctioned at all; a separate clause, applied by the institution itself, decides who may sit in the room once it arrives.

On the institution side, a university or college has to fall within Section 2(f) of the UGC Act, 1956 and be fit to receive central assistance under Section 12(B), and it has to enrol enough students from the target groups for the proposal to make sense (UGC university guidelines). The college guideline turns that into a hard floor for remedial coaching: a college needs at least 100 students belonging to SC, ST, OBC excluding the creamy layer, or minority communities. For the NET and SET component, a college also needs postgraduate departments, which quietly rules out the large number of colleges teaching only up to the bachelor's degree (UGC college guidelines).

On the student side the door is wider than the scheme's name suggests. General candidates holding a Below Poverty Line card issued by the central or a state government may be admitted to these classes, and where a university cannot find enough SC, ST and minority students, the share of OBC non-creamy-layer and poor general candidates may be raised to 40% (UGC university guidelines). In colleges the equivalent allowance is 20% of the total students from outside the target groups (UGC college guidelines). Students who dropped out are explicitly within reach of remedial coaching, and for the entry into services component a college may advertise in a local daily so that candidates who are not on its rolls can apply.

Who cannot apply

Exclusions

No list of disqualified students exists in either guideline, and that is consistent with how the scheme is built: what shuts a door here shuts it for a whole institution at once. A college outside Section 12(B) cannot host a centre, however many category students it teaches. A college below the 100-student floor is out of remedial coaching, and a college without a PG department is out of NET coaching (UGC college guidelines). General candidates admitted to a college remedial class may be charged a nominal fee not exceeding the monthly tuition fee, though students with disabilities and general candidates from families below the poverty line are exempted from paying it.

Continuation

Renewal conditions

Nothing renews in a student's name, because nothing was awarded in a student's name. What renews is the institution's grant, and the guidelines tie that to spending rather than to a fresh application. A college receives all of the non-recurring grant and 20% of the recurring grant once the proposal is approved, and any further release depends on the utilisation of what was already sent (UGC college guidelines). The recurring ceiling for a college is written for the whole Plan period, while a university's recurring ceiling is written per annum, so the two documents renew on different clocks even though they fund the same three activities.

What you get

Award & benefits

The money buys teaching hours, a coordinator, some equipment and a small contingency. Neither guideline lists a payment to a student among the items the grant may cover. Asked in the Lok Sabha whether UGC offers any scholarship or incentive to the students it coaches under the remedial scheme, the Ministry of Human Resource Development replied that "No separate scholarship/incentive is offered to students by UGC under this scheme" (Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 4027, 27.03.2017). A student's benefit is the coaching itself, plus whatever study material and library access the centre provides.

The ceilings above are per component, so an institution running all three files three proposals and is assessed on three sets of numbers. Inside the recurring head, the rates are prescribed rather than left to the institution, which is why a coaching centre in a university and one in a college can look identical and pay their teachers differently.

A college coordinator's honorarium is capped at Rs 12,000 a year and is payable only for the months the coaching actually runs, plus one month for preparation, and a part-time assistant with computer skills is paid up to Rs 18,000 a year (UGC college guidelines). Contingency runs to Rs 50,000 a year in a university, against Rs 10,000 a year in a college, and a university may also engage part-time staff with computer knowledge on contract at Rs 6,000 a month (UGC university guidelines).

• The institutions can apply for one or more components of the scheme according to the number of enrolment of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, OBC (Non-Creamy Layer), and Minorities Communities Students. If, the number of students in a particular class is more, additional section(s) may be included. Financial assistance is available for the following items:
• Non-recurring items: A “one-time” grant up to Rs. 5.0 lakhs for each scheme during the XII Plan period for the following items:
• Audio-visual and teaching/ learning aid material
• Computers with Printer
• Generator or Inverter
• Recurring Items: Rs.7.00 lakhs for universities for each scheme per annum for expenditure on the following items:
• Honorarium to the Coordinator of the schemes @Rs. 2000/- per month
• Remuneration to teachers and scholars
• Part-time staff with computer knowledge (on a contract basis) @ 6,000/- p.m.
• Part-time Peon/Attendant.@ Rs.1000/- p.m
• Contingency - Rs 50,000/- per annum
• Remuneration at the rate of Rs. 300/- per hour per subject to the teachers and Rs.200 /- per hour to postgraduate students/ Research Scholars could be paid for theory classes and Rs.150/-per hour respectively for practicals. Generally, a faculty member should not teach for more than 2 hours a day. However, in exceptional cases where an eminent educationist is invited for a Special lecture, the remuneration @ Rs.500/- per hour and admissible T.A. could be paid with the approval of the Head of the Institution. The payment of remuneration to the participating teachers, PG students, and research scholars may be paid regularly every month without waiting for the pending grant from the UGC.
• The final amount of grant to be allocated would depend upon the number of schemes, the number of students enrolled for the schemes in the proposal, and the decision of the Committee appointed for serving the applicants for these schemes.

What to prepare

Documents required

The paperwork splits the same way the eligibility does. What the scheme record lists, an Aadhaar card, a caste or community certificate, mark sheets and bank details, is the file a student hands to the coaching centre at enrolment. None of it travels to the Commission.

The institution's file is a different animal. A separate proforma is submitted for each of the three schemes, and it carries the college or university's approval letter under Sections 2(f) and 12(B), a year-wise enrolment table broken up by category for both UG and PG classes, faculty strength split into permanent, temporary, part-time and visiting, a statement of the office and classroom space and library holdings relevant to the coaching, an item-wise cost estimate, and a separate justification note. Bank details are demanded down to the branch IFSC and MICR codes and whether the branch is RTGS and NEFT enabled. A university's proforma is signed and sealed by the Registrar (UGC university guidelines); a college's by the Principal (UGC college guidelines).

Step by step

How to apply

For the institution, the route is offline and internal. The department or cell that wants to run a centre prepares the proforma for that component, gets it signed by the Registrar or the Principal, and sends it to the Commission with the supporting certificates attached.

For a student, there is no route to the Commission at all. Applications are invited by the institution once its own centre exists, and the guidelines direct that selection be made from regular as well as dropped-out students. The practical instruction is narrow: ask the coaching coordinator or the SC/ST or equal opportunity cell in your own college whether a centre is currently sanctioned, and if you want the entry into services component, watch the local newspaper advertisements, because that component is allowed to recruit candidates from outside the college rolls.

Following an Application Once It Is In

Nothing in this scheme issues a student an acknowledgement slip or an online status page. Progress is reported upwards instead, from the centre to the Commission. The coordinator submits an appraisal report at the end of each academic year through the Registrar, naming the duration of the coaching, the number of candidates who took part, the number who appeared for the examination and the number who passed in each paper (UGC university guidelines). The college document moves that clock for one component: an entry into services centre reports at the end of the third year of the programme, through the Principal, and its report has to state how many candidates got placement (UGC college guidelines). A statement of expenditure and a utilisation certificate are filed separately for each of the three schemes, and the certificate carries three signatures and seals, the Registrar or Principal, the Finance Officer, and an auditor. A UGC Standing Committee monitors the schemes and constitutes sub-committees to visit the centres. So a student asking where a sanctioned centre stands is asking the coordinator and the Registrar's office, and the appraisal report is the document that answers.

How winners are picked

Selection process

Selection inside a sanctioned centre is done by the institution, not by a merit list published anywhere central. Once applications are invited, candidates are divided into groups of not more than 25 in each paper, and each group is placed under one faculty member so that responsibility for that group's progress sits with a named teacher (UGC university guidelines).

The teaching load is specified rather than suggested. At least 50 clock hours are to be organised for each subject or paper carrying 100 marks, an examination follows every 10 hours of teaching, and the evaluation is meant to be discussed with the candidate rather than filed away. Attendance registers are compulsory, and a candidate absent more than 2 times is to be advised about regular attendance (UGC university guidelines).

On the grant side, the amount sanctioned is not automatic even for an eligible institution. It turns on how many of the schemes were applied for, how many students the proposal shows enrolled, and the view taken by the committee that screens the applicants (UGC university guidelines), which for a college is an Expert Committee (UGC college guidelines).

Fine print

Terms & conditions

The classroom conditions are as prescriptive as the money. A faculty member should generally not teach more than 2 hours a day under the scheme. Remuneration to participating teachers, postgraduate students and research scholars is to be paid every month, without waiting for a pending grant from the Commission, so a slow release is the institution's problem to absorb and not the teacher's.

Governance is written in as well. A university constituting a centre also constitutes an Advisory Committee chaired by the Vice-Chancellor, with 5 other members at professor level, at least one each drawn from Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and minority communities, and the programme coordinator as member secretary. The utilisation certificate carries a clause that survives the grant: if an audit or check later finds an irregularity, the institution undertakes to refund or regularise the objected amount. Furniture, classrooms, library facilities and study material are to come from the institution's own resources, not from the grant (UGC university guidelines).

Get help

Contact

Start inside your own institution. The coaching coordinator is the officer who knows whether a centre is sanctioned and when applications will be invited, and the Registrar or Principal holds the sanction file and the appraisal reports.

At the Commission, these coaching schemes sit with the State University bureau, headed by Dr. Sunita Siwach, Joint Secretary, reachable at ssiwach.ugc@nic.in and 011-23070344 (University Grants Commission, State University bureau). The Commission's office is on Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi.

Source

Official links

Frequently asked questions

From the official scheme FAQ (myScheme)

Read this

Disclaimer

Disclaimer

Scheme details are compiled from myScheme, the Government of India’s official scheme-discovery platform, and are reproduced without alteration. Amounts, deadlines and eligibility change between cycles, so always confirm on the official links above before applying. Expertie does not process applications or charge fees.

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