Free Education For Sports Medal Winners / Participants Of National/ International Events(FESMWPNIE)

Overview

About FESMWPNIE

A medal at a national-level competition, the qualification most Indian student athletes actually hold, draws 75% of the tuition fee under this scheme rather than all of it. The University Grants Commission pays the full actual fee only from the SAF Games medal band upward. And the money never reaches the athlete first, because UGC reimburses the institution and the institution is the one that has to raise the claim.

UGC launched this scheme in 2012, and the detail reached the public through a Lok Sabha answer from the Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Dr Shashi Tharoor, which the Press Information Bureau put out on 13 December 2012. It was written for sportspersons who are already students, not for athletes looking for a way into a course. The trigger is a medal at the national level or participation in a recognised international event, and the point of it is that the cost of the degree an athlete is already enrolled in stops being a reason to stop competing.

UGC has published this scheme's guidelines twice, and the two documents differ in ways that matter to an applicant. The file the launch announcement sent readers to still sits in UGC's old plan-period folder, and North-Eastern Hill University hosts a copy of it that is identical byte for byte. It carries printed proformas: an application form the candidate signs, and a reimbursement claim form the head of the institution signs. The revised version, the one UGC's XII Plan guidelines page links today, drops both forms, adds an Aadhaar seeding clause, widens the list of institutions whose students can be covered, and sends the applicant to an online portal. Which of the two governs a claim raised now is nowhere stated: the guidelines page carries only the revised file, the portal that file names no longer exists, and no third document reconciles them.

That leaves the scheme unsettled rather than closed. The revised document dates itself on its own cover as guidelines for the XII Plan, 2012-2017. The online portal address it prints, repeated in the scheme's public record, now redirects to UGC's error page. And UGC's site lists the student scholarship schemes it currently runs, starting with the PG Scholarship for University Rank Holders, with this one absent from that list. Against all of that, nothing published says the scheme has been withdrawn, so whether a claim can still be raised is a question only the university can settle, and the section on how to apply says who to ask there.

Who runs it

Provider

At a glance

Key details

Calendar

Important dates

Nothing here runs to a national calendar. Neither guidelines document prints a window, and the scheme's public record leaves the open and close fields empty. The dates that bind belong to the institution instead: the progress report and the utilisation certificate fall due at the end of the session, and the next year's grant follows the previous year's utilisation certificate.

That rhythm has a consequence for late paperwork. The candidate's form asks for the year for which the scholarship is claimed and the academic year of admission, and the institution files its statement annually, so a medal certificate that arrives from a federation after that year's claim has already gone in has no separate late-application route in the guidelines. The realistic option is to have it counted in the following year's statement, which the institution's sports office would have to confirm.

The wider date to hold in mind is the plan period the guidelines were written for. The revised cover page names it as 2012-2017, and nothing UGC has published since extends it.

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

The achievement is only half of what UGC checks. The institution the athlete is enrolled in has to qualify as well, and a failure on either side ends the claim.

The sporting test is narrower than the scheme's name suggests. The guidelines admit medal winners of the National Games, and participants, with no medal required, in international sporting events recognised by the World University Service, the International Olympic Committee, or the Olympic Council of Asia. The benefit chart then reaches slightly wider than the eligibility clause, because its lowest band names a medal at national-level competitions rather than the National Games alone. Nothing in either version reaches below that. A district championship, a state-level meet, an inter-college tournament or a school games medal is outside the scheme entirely, however good the performance was.

The application proforma in the earlier document is the clearest statement of which events the drafters had in mind. It asks the candidate to tick one entry from a fixed list: Olympic, Asiad, Commonwealth, "National/International/World Universidad/Youth Olympics", or other international events. If an achievement does not sit under one of those headings, the form has nowhere to record it.

The institutional test is where most applicants are quietly filtered out. The athlete must be enrolled in a full-time regular course, which the guidelines say includes PG Diploma and professional courses, at an institution UGC is able to pay. Where the earlier document reached only as far as sections 2(f) and 12(B) of the UGC Act, 1956, the revised one adds a section 3 deemed university eligible for grant in aid, any institution funded by the central or a state government, and an Institute of National Importance. Section 2(f) is UGC recognition; section 12(B) is the separate declaration that makes an institution fit to receive central assistance. UGC publishes the college-by-college list with each one's status, and checking a college's own row there answers the eligibility question faster than any correspondence will.

Who cannot apply

Exclusions

The guidelines set out grounds on which UGC may terminate an award: misconduct reported by the institution, an unsatisfactory progress report where the candidate frequently fails examinations, and termination by the Commission on the university's recommendation at any time during the tenure, with the Commission's decision final and binding.

In practice, most refusals happen well before any of that. An achievement below the national level does not qualify. An international event that no recognising body on the list has recognised does not qualify. A part-time, distance or otherwise non-regular course does not qualify, because the scheme is written around full-time regular study. An institution that is not on the 2(f) and 12(B) list, is not deemed under section 3 with grant-in-aid eligibility, is not government funded and is not an Institute of National Importance cannot claim reimbursement at all, which puts a student at a purely self-financing private college outside the scheme no matter what the medal is. And the revised guidelines add a flat instruction that incomplete applications will not be considered, with no cure period offered.

A student who discontinues studies without UGC's prior approval is required to refund the amount already disbursed. Leaving a course mid-way to train full time therefore turns the award into a debt, unless the Commission has agreed to the break first.

Continuation

Renewal conditions

The eligibility clause says the scholarship in subsequent years shall depend on the sportsperson's subsequent sports performance, which makes continued competition a condition of continued money rather than a formality settled by passing examinations.

Alongside that, the institution carries an annual filing duty. It submits a progress report on each beneficiary's sports performance in the prescribed format, an annual progress report at the end of the session, and a utilisation certificate for every student on the scheme. The next year's grant is released only on receipt of the previous year's utilisation certificate. The earlier version adds one more paper: a certificate justifying the continuance of the scholarship, issued by the Director or Head of the Department and forwarded by the Registrar or Principal.

Put together, the renewal test can fail from either side. An athlete who keeps passing examinations but stops appearing at recognised events loses the sporting condition. An athlete who keeps competing but frequently fails is caught by the unsatisfactory progress ground. A student whose institution simply misses its utilisation certificate deadline can also find the next tranche stuck, which is why the sports office and the accounts section both need to know a claim is running.

What you get

Award & benefits

The chart is graded by what the athlete achieved, not by family income, and there is no means test anywhere in either document. Both versions of the chart group the top four performance bands as Category-I and the lowest band as Category-II, and that split decides whether tuition is paid in full.

"Actual" is doing real work in that table. It means the fee the institution actually charges rather than a capped slab, so a professional course with a high published fee is covered at that fee and not at a notional ceiling. Hostel facilities, specified as boarding and lodging, are also reimbursed at actual in both categories, and allowances for special courses abroad follow the Government of India's norms rather than a figure of the scheme's own.

Research and professional degrees are treated differently again, with a monthly amount stacked on top of the fee reimbursement.

What the chart does not fund is worth saying plainly, because the scheme is often described as though it carries an athlete's whole life. There is no line for travel to competitions, no coaching or academy fee, no equipment beyond the annual kit amount, and no living stipend for an undergraduate. The monthly rates appear only against M.Phil, Ph.D. and professional courses.

• Medals at Olympics, World Championship (more than 20 countries)
• Tuition Fee and Other Funds: Bachelor's degree: Actual; PG: Actual; Diploma: Actual; PG Degree: Actual; M. Phil: ₹ 7500/- per month + Actual; Ph.D.: As per with JRF scale (UGC); MBA or
• other professional courses (): ₹ 7500/- per month + Actual.
• Hostel Facilities (Boarding and Lodging): Actual
• Allowances for special courses abroad: As per Govt of India’s norms
• Kit: ₹ 15000 per annum
• Participations at Olympics, World Championship (more than 20 countries); Medal at Common Wealth, Asian, Afro-Asian Games
• Tuition Fee and Other Funds: Bachelor's degree: Actual; PG: Actual; Diploma: Actual; PG Degree: Actual; M. Phil: ₹ 7500/- per month + Actual; Ph.D.: As per with JRF scale (UGC); MBA or
• other professional courses (): ₹ 7500/- per month + Actual.
• Hostel Facilities (Boarding and Lodging): Actual
• Allowances for special courses abroad: As per Govt of India’s norms
• Kit: ₹15000 per annum
• Participation at World Championship (less than 20 countries), CommonWealth, Asian, and Afro-Asian, Games; Medal at Asian Championship (excluding Asian games)
• Tuition Fee and Other Funds: Bachelor's degree: Actual; PG: Actual; Diploma: Actual; PG Degree: Actual; M. Phil: ₹7500/- per month + Actual; Ph.D.: As per with JRF scale (UGC); MBA or
• other professional courses (): ₹ 7500/- per month + Actual.
• Hostel Facilities (Boarding and Lodging): Actual
• Allowances for special courses abroad: As per Govt of India’s norms
• Kit: ₹ 10000 per annum
• Participation at Asian Championship, World university games; Medal at SAF Games
• Tuition Fee and Other Funds: Bachelor's degree: Actual; PG: Actual; Diploma: Actual; PG Degree: Actual; M. Phil:₹7500/- per month + Actual; Ph.D.: As per with JRF scale (UGC); MBA or
• other professional courses (): ₹ 7500/- per month + Actual.
• Hostel Facilities (Boarding and Lodging): Actual
• Allowances for special courses abroad: As per Govt of India’s norms
• Kit: ₹7500 per annum
• Participation at SAF Games; Medal at National level Competitions
• Tuition Fee and Other Funds: Bachelor's degree: 75% of Actual; PG: 75% of Actual; Diploma: 75% of Actual; PG Degree: 75% of Actual; M. Phil: ₹ 5000/- per month + Actual; Ph.D.: Rs. 7500/- per month + Actual; MBA or other professional courses (): ₹. 5000/- per month + Actual.
• Hostel Facilities (Boarding and Lodging): Actual
• Allowances for special courses abroad: As per Govt of India’s norms
• Kit: ₹ 6000 per annum
• (i) The pattern of assistance will be as per the chart mentioned above depending upon the level of performance of the concerned sportsperson.
• (ii) The financial assistance depending upon the eligibility will be reimbursed by the UGC to the university concerned. The university will be responsible for submitting all relevant documents as per the guidelines and the proformas of the scheme.
• (iii) For the loss of the classes of the concerned sports persons because of their engagement in sporting activity, the university concerned will make special efforts in terms of completion of syllabus and attendance.

What to prepare

Documents required

The proof of achievement is a certificate of participation or of the medal, and the signature that makes it usable belongs to the institution. The earlier guidelines require it to be attested by the Registrar or Principal; the revised version adds the Director and asks for it to be submitted while the online application is being filled. The college is therefore deciding whether a certificate matches the eligibility line before UGC ever sees it, so a certificate that names an event ambiguously is worth clarifying with the federation before it reaches the registrar's desk.

The candidate's own form in the earlier version asks for the name, date of birth, the course admitted to, the year for which the scholarship is claimed, the institution, the category of claim, the event ticked from the fixed list, and the academic year of admission. The institution's reimbursement claim form asks a different set: whether the college is listed under sections 2(f) and 12(B) and the date of that inclusion, how many students are enrolled under the scheme that year, a brief record of each student's sports and academic performance, and the categories claimed.

The revised version alone carries an Aadhaar clause, added by way of a reproduced Ministry of Human Resource Development letter to UGC, so an unseeded number is a live reason for a release to stall. The earlier document, written before that letter, asks for nothing of the kind.

Step by step

How to apply

The revised guidelines say the candidate applies online, through a UGC portal address on the ugc.ac.in domain, and warn that applications must follow the instructions on that portal exactly. That address now resolves to UGC's error page rather than to any form, and no replacement portal for this scheme appears anywhere on UGC's current site.

What survives intact is the institutional route, and it reads the same in both versions. Assistance under this scheme is reimbursed by UGC to the university concerned, and the university is responsible for submitting all the documents and proformas. The practical first stop is the institution's sports office, its Director of Physical Education or sports board, and the Registrar or Principal who has to attest the achievement certificate and sign the claim. A student who has filed nothing with the institution has filed nothing at all, because neither document offers a route that bypasses it.

Tracking works the same way, and there is no student-facing status tracker in either version of the guidelines. What the documents do create is an annual paper trail the institution holds: a statement naming the students selected for the scholarship along with their receipt of the amount, the progress report after the first year, and the utilisation certificate that unlocks the following year's release. Asking the registrar's office for the status of that year's statement and utilisation certificate is the only sourced way to find out where a claim has reached.

How winners are picked

Selection process

Neither version publishes a merit list, an interview, a written test, a slot count or a ranking rule. Selection is the eligibility test applied to the certificate, followed by the institution deciding to forward the claim and UGC deciding to reimburse it. The number of awards available in a year is not stated anywhere in the guidelines, so no applicant can be told what the competition for them looks like.

Fine print

Terms & conditions

Holding this award does not block another one. Both versions state that a student receiving it will not be debarred from accepting any other scholarship from any other source or funding agency, and the revised version adds that this holds during the tenure of the award. So a state stipend, a federation grant or an institution's own sports fee concession can sit alongside it, and the clause is worth quoting to anyone who assumes only one award may be held at a time.

The university is separately required to make special efforts on syllabus completion and attendance for classes lost to sporting engagements, and to make provision for leave of absence when the candidate needs it for sporting activity or for the admission process. These protect the athlete's academic record rather than their wallet, and neither is self-executing: both are obligations on the institution that a student has to raise with a department that may not know they exist.

The reimbursement design also sets the ceiling on what can go wrong. Because UGC pays the university and not the athlete, a claim the institution never files produces nothing, and the guidelines carry no appeal route against an institution that declines to forward one.

Get help

Contact

Neither version leaves an athlete a direct line to the Commission, and the only UGC coordinates either one carries are postal: Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi 110002, printed on the cover. General correspondence goes to contact.ugc@nic.in, the mailbox in the footer of UGC's site. A claim already in motion is not there at all: it is with the registrar and the sports office that lodged it.

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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References

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