Junior Research Fellowship In Engineering & Technology(JRFST)

Overview

About JRFST

There is no qualifying test to clear for this fellowship, and the scheme's own guidelines print the reason. Neither the University Grants Commission nor CSIR conducts the National Education Testing examination in engineering and technology, so the Commission picks M.Pharma, M.E. and M.Tech. candidates for this award through a direct interview instead, against 50 slots a year (UGC guidelines, JRF in Engineering & Technology, archived copy).

The stated purpose is narrow. The scheme funds research scholars to undertake advanced study and research in engineering and technology, and in agricultural engineering, leading to a Ph.D., and it explicitly keeps geology and geo-physics outside the subject list (UGC guidelines, JRF in Engineering & Technology).

The paper trail behind it matters as much as the terms. The only guidelines the Commission publishes for this fellowship sit in its XIth Plan set, under the schemes meant for individuals (UGC XI Plan Guidelines). The XIIth Plan list that came after it carries revised guidelines for the Junior Research Fellowship in Science, Humanities and Social Sciences and for the JRF and Research Associateship for Foreign Nationals, with nothing for engineering and technology (UGC XII Plan Guidelines). Its Student Corner, the page a student looking for a UGC fellowship would actually land on, carries a short fellowship list that this scheme is not on (UGC Student Corner). Everything below is what the guidelines print, not a confirmation of a live cycle.

Who runs it

Provider

At a glance

Key details

Calendar

Important dates

The guidelines fix a rhythm rather than a calendar. Applications are invited once in a year through the newspaper and AIU Newsletter advertisement, and no opening or closing date is printed anywhere in the document (UGC guidelines). Both date fields on the scheme's myScheme entry sit empty as well, so there is nothing there to count down to (myScheme record for JRFST).

The one date the scheme does fix is the age reference point, 40 years as on 1 July of the year of the award, which is the figure to count back from when you judge whether a future cycle would still be open to you (UGC guidelines, JRF in Engineering & Technology, archived copy).

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

A GATE score is not the entry ticket, and the eligibility clause says so in as many words: GATE is not a mandatory condition for getting a research fellowship to pursue a Ph.D. under this scheme (UGC guidelines).

The academic floor is a master's degree in engineering, technology or pharmacy with 55 per cent marks. The very next line of the same clause then says candidates need to hold an M.E. or M.Tech. degree, so a pharmacy post-graduate is reading two conditions that do not sit comfortably together and should settle the question with the Commission before spending on an application (UGC guidelines, JRF in Engineering & Technology, archived copy).

The age bar is measured against a fixed calendar point rather than your application date: 40 years as on 1 July of the year of the award, extendable by five years for women and for SC and ST candidates (UGC guidelines, JRF in Engineering & Technology, archived copy).

Reserved slots do not lapse. A total of 22.5 per cent of the fellowships are reserved for SC and ST candidates who meet the same qualifications, and where such candidates are not available those slots are made available to general candidates (UGC guidelines, JRF in Engineering & Technology, archived copy).

Who cannot apply

Exclusions

The award is liable to cancellation for misconduct, for unsatisfactory progress of the research work, for failure in any examination related to the Ph.D., and where a candidate is found ineligible later (UGC guidelines). The version of the list carried on the scheme's myScheme record drops the misconduct line; the Commission's own document carries it (myScheme record for JRFST).

Two standing bars operate quietly after selection rather than before it. A fellow may not accept or hold any appointment, paid or otherwise, or draw a salary, stipend or emolument from any other source during the tenure, and the guidelines direct fellows to join technical institutes and not the science departments of universities (UGC guidelines). Time already spent on a fellowship from any agency other than UGC is also left out when the proposal to raise the value of the award is considered.

Continuation

Renewal conditions

There is no yearly renewal form to file. The single review that decides the rest of the award is the upgradation from Junior to Senior Research Fellow, and it is a committee process run inside your own institution.

On completing the first two years the fellow applies to the department or university for upgradation. A committee of three is constituted for it, made up of the supervisor, the head of the department and an external subject expert, and the minutes of its constitution together with its recommendation go to the Commission on the assessment form printed as Annexure VIII of the guidelines, which asks the committee to grade the work as satisfactory, good, very good or excellent after a presentation and interview. Do not be thrown by the heading on that annexure: the form bound into this booklet is printed under the name of the JRF in Sciences, Humanities and Social Sciences, and it is still the form these guidelines send you to. The guidelines require the upgradation work to be completed not later than three months from the expiry of the JRF tenure (UGC guidelines).

A second committee decides the money that follows. The Dean of the faculty or the head of the institution, the head of the concerned department and the fellow's supervisor consider the enhancement in the light of the evaluation report of the expert the proposal was sent to, and where one person holds two of those posts a senior teacher from the department takes the third seat (UGC guidelines). If the work is not considered satisfactory, or the candidate fails an examination related to the Ph.D., the fellowship may be withdrawn rather than merely held at the junior rate.

What you get

Award & benefits

Every rate below is read off UGC's own guidelines booklet for this fellowship, the XIth Plan document the Commission still keeps in the old-PDF section of its website.

Those are XIth Plan rates, and the gap they leave is worth seeing before you plan around them. The Commission's live page for the NET-based fellowship prints Rs 37,000 and Rs 42,000 a month, while no revised rate for the engineering and technology scheme appears either there or in the XIIth Plan guidelines list (UGC Junior Research Fellowship scheme page, UGC XII Plan Guidelines).

The tenure runs on a fixed clock.

Accommodation is settled before allowance. The institution may give the fellow single-seated hostel accommodation, and only where it cannot is HRA paid under the institution's rules, against a certificate submitted through the registrar or principal. A fellow already housed in a hostel the institution recognises or maintains can have the hostel fee reimbursed, with mess, electricity and water charges excluded, and a fellow who rents privately draws HRA on the Government of India's categorisation of cities (UGC guidelines). No separate medical assistance is attached to the award; the fellow uses whatever the institution or university already provides.

Leave is capped at 30 days in a year on top of public holidays, with no claim to summer, winter or pooja vacations, and women candidates get 135 days of maternity leave at full rates once during the tenure (UGC guidelines, JRF in Engineering & Technology, archived copy). The clause worth planning around is the unpaid one: leave without fellowship, whether the academic year the Commission may allow for a temporary teaching assignment in the same city or town, or the three months allowed in other cases, still counts towards the total tenure. Unpaid time shortens the award instead of extending it.

• NATURE OF ASSISTANCE
• The tenure of the fellowship is initially for a period of two years as a Junior Research Fellowship (JRF).
• After the expiry of two years the work of the fellow will be evaluated by experts and if found satisfactory, his/her tenure will be extended for a further period of three years with enhanced emoluments as a Senior Research Fellowship (SRF).
• In case the work of the fellow for the first two years is not found satisfactory, one more year will be given to him/her for improvement, but during this period he/she will be designated as a Junior Research Fellow. In such cases work will again be evaluated after three years, and if the improvement is found, the fellow will get two more years under the SRF.
• Thus, the total period of fellowship (JRF and SRF) is five years, which is non-extendable. The awardee can avail research fellowship for the full tenure of the fellowship or up to the date of award of the Ph.D. degree, whichever is earlier.
• The assistance available under the scheme is: Fellowship @ Rs. 14,000/- p.m. for the initial two years, @ Rs.15,000/- for the remaining period
• Contingency @ Rs.12,000/- p.a. for the initial two years, @Rs.25,000/- p.a. for the remaining period
• Departmental Assistance @ Rs. 3,000/- p.a. per student to the host institute for providing, infrastructure to the researcher
• Escorts/Reader Assistance @Rs.2,000/- p.m. in cases of physically handicapped and blind candidates
• HRA As per the rule of the concerned institution
• House Rent Allowance: Suitable single-seated hostel accommodation in the institutions may be provided to the Fellow, failing which HRA as per rules of the university/institution
• will be paid, subject to the submission of the HRA certificate through the registrar/principal. Research Fellows provided with accommodation in hostels recognized/maintained by the institutions may be reimbursed the hostel fee, excluding mess, electricity and water charges, etc. A certificate to this effect is to be furnished through the registrar/principal (Annexure I). If the Fellow makes his/her own arrangements of accommodation, he/she may be entitled to draw HRA as per the categorization of cities by the Government of India. The Fellow will submit a certificate to UGC for claiming HRA through the concerned university/institution/college.
• Medical: No separate/fixed medical assistance is provided. However, the fellow may avail the medical facilities available in the institution/university.
• Leave: Research Fellows are entitled to a maximum period of 30 days leave in a year in addition to public holidays. They are not entitled to any other leave, for example, summer, winter, pooja vacations, etc. Women candidates are eligible for maternity leave of 135 days at full rates of fellowship once during the tenure of their award.
• Note-1: The Research Fellow, in special cases, may be allowed by the Commission, to leave without fellowship for up to one academic year during the entire tenure of the award for accepting teaching assignments on a temporary basis, provided the assignment is in the same city/town.
• Note-2: In other cases, leave without fellowship will be restricted to a period not exceeding three months during the tenure of the award on the recommendations of the supervisor and the head of the institution.
• Note-3: The period of leave without fellowship will be counted towards the total tenure of the fellowship.
• Note-4: Fellows are advised to apply for leave through their university/institution/college well in advance for the approval of the Commission.

What to prepare

Documents required

The attachment that decides whether the file is even read is the research abstract. A brief abstract of not more than 500 words on the proposed research work and the methods of approach must travel with the form, and the guidelines state that an application without it is treated as incomplete and is not included in the selection process (UGC guidelines, JRF in Engineering & Technology, archived copy).

The form also assumes a supervisor and a department are already in place. It asks for the department and the college or university where the research is proposed, the subject, the specialisation within it, the title of the research problem, and the name, designation and telephone number of the supervisor. A certificate from the head of the department or institution that the necessary facilities will be provided has to be attached, and the recommendation of the forwarding authority along with the supervisor's or head of department's view on the candidate's suitability is obtained separately and enclosed (UGC guidelines).

Particulars of educational qualifications begin at matriculation, not at the master's degree that qualifies you, and run forward from there, with attested copies of mark sheets, certificates and diplomas attached. The Basic Data Sheet separately asks for the subject and percentage at B.Pharm., B.E., B.Tech., M.Pharm., M.E. and M.Tech. level. Any earlier scholarship or fellowship has to be declared with its source, value, period and the work done under it (UGC guidelines).

Step by step

How to apply

This is a once-a-year, prescribed-format application announced in print. Applications are invited in the format at Annexure II of the guidelines, once in a year, through an advertisement in leading newspapers and in the Association of Indian Universities Newsletter (UGC guidelines). myScheme tags the mode of application online, which sits oddly against a newspaper advertisement and a posted form, and it carries no link a candidate could actually apply through (myScheme record for JRFST).

Who Holds Your Paperwork After You Apply

There is no candidate-facing status tracker for this scheme, and the guidelines make clear why: almost every document in the money chain is filed by the institution, not by the fellow. The joining report, signed by the supervisor or head of department, reaches UGC through the registrar or principal, and the first year's grant is released only once that report and the other required documents are in. Every later instalment of fellowship, contingency and departmental assistance depends on the institution sending a utilisation certificate with a statement of expenditure at the end of each year, along with a half-yearly progress report on the work done (UGC guidelines).

So a payment that has not arrived is traced first in your own registrar's office, where the utilisation certificate either has or has not gone out. Where the institution has filed and the Commission has not moved, UGC routes student grievances through its e-Samadhaan portal (UGC e-Samadhaan).

How winners are picked

Selection process

Applications received are scrutinised, shortlisted candidates are called to appear before a selection committee constituted by the Commission, and the award is made on merit after an interview by an expert committee the Commission appoints (UGC guidelines).

Neither clause sitting around that interview is generous. No TA or DA is paid for attending it, so the journey is the candidate's own expense, and the decision of the Commission is final and binding, with the Commission reserving the right to withdraw or cancel the award without assigning any reason (UGC guidelines).

Fine print

Terms & conditions

The fellow works full time on the research, under the approved guide, on a subject chosen by the fellow and approved by the university or the selection committee, and presents half-yearly progress reports for the periods ending June and December through the supervisor, with the institution keeping the record (UGC guidelines).

Two ordinary academic acts need permission first. Giving up the fellowship during the tenure requires the prior approval of both the university and the Commission, and so does appearing in any examination conducted by a university or a public body. Teaching help is allowed within limits: with the consent of the guide or head of department the fellow may assist the institution with tutorials, evaluation of test papers, laboratory demonstration work and seminars, provided the research programme in hand is not hampered (UGC guidelines).

The award can move, once. In special cases the Commission may place a fellow in an institution not covered by the UGC Act, where that institution agrees to provide the infrastructure and meet the expenses under the scheme's norms, and a fellow may transfer the fellowship once during the tenure by applying to UGC with no-objection certificates from both institutions forwarded by the registrar, director or principal (UGC guidelines).

The ending is written in unusually blunt language. The fellowship may be terminated at any time without reasons being assigned, nothing extends it beyond the total tenure, and the guidelines state that the awardee ceases to be a UGC JRF or SRF immediately after the tenure expires, adding that any claim or reference to the contrary is illegal and may attract disciplinary action (UGC guidelines).

Get help

Contact

The address printed on the scheme's own application form is the UGC Selection and Award Bureau at the South Campus of Delhi University, Benito Juarez Marg, New Delhi (UGC guidelines). The Commission's current contact page lists that campus under its NET Bureau and its Anti Ragging, State University and Fee Nivaran Bureau, at New Delhi 110021, and names no Selection and Award Bureau there (UGC Contact Us).

So the working number is the Commission's general switchboard, 011-23604446 or 011-23604200, which rings at Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg in New Delhi 110002 rather than at the South Campus desk the form names, with contact.ugc@nic.in as the published email for it (UGC Contact Us). Anything an institution cannot settle for a fellow is registered as a student grievance on e-Samadhaan (UGC e-Samadhaan).

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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