Post Doctoral Fellowship to Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe Candidates(PDFSC/STC)

Overview

About PDFSC/STC

A post-doctoral fellowship still open to a researcher in their fifties is unusual in India, and the age line is not even the narrowest thing about this one. The UGC Post Doctoral Fellowship for SC/ST candidates starts only after the doctorate has been awarded, and it is written for people who hold that doctorate and hold no job.

The scheme funds post-doctoral research in sciences, engineering and technology, humanities and social sciences by unemployed SC/ST candidates who already hold a PhD, and it is sized deliberately small: 100 slots per year, with a tenure of five years and no provision for further extension, as set out in the UGC XII Plan guidelines dated 30.05.2016 for this scheme (archived copy).

The word that decides most applications is "unemployed". A candidate already in a regular post is outside the target group, and being found employed during the research is one of the listed grounds for cancelling an award. This is a bridge between the doctorate and an academic job, not a top-up for someone who already has one.

The host institution is a second gate, and it turns away applicants the academic tests would have let through. Four kinds of place can hold the award and nothing else can. Two of them are defined by statute: anything included under Sections 2(f) and 12(B) of the UGC Act, and a Section 3 deemed university that qualifies to receive grants-in-aid. The other two turn on who pays and who ranks - a university, institution or college funded by the Central or a State Government, and an Institute of National Importance, per the scheme guidelines. A self-financed private university falling outside all four cannot hold the award, whatever its department has promised the researcher.

Who runs it

Provider

At a glance

Key details

Calendar

Important dates

No opening or closing date is published for this fellowship, in the record or in the guidelines. What exists in place of a calendar is a rhythm - one advertisement a year, carrying its own deadline - and that is precisely why the age limit is written against the last date of receipt of online applications rather than against a fixed day.

Three deadlines do become fixed once an award exists. An award letter has a shelf life of 3 months from the date it is issued: join inside that window, or the guidelines treat the award as cancelled and provide nothing for reviving it. The Continuation Certificate then falls due at the end of every quarter, and the progress report once a year, per the UGC guidelines.

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

Four gates decide it: the doctorate, employment status, the category certificate and age. The guidelines ask for a doctorate in the relevant subject, preferably with published research work to the candidate's credit, and a provisional degree certificate may be accepted where the degree has not yet been awarded. Marks matter at both earlier levels, and the bar for SC/ST candidates is 50% at UG level and 55% at PG level, per the UGC guidelines.

The age limit is read against a moving date rather than a calendar year. It is 50 years for male applicants and 55 years for female applicants as on the last date of receipt of online applications, so the cut-off shifts with every advertisement, per the same guidelines. Transgender candidates are eligible to apply, with reservation followed as per Government of India norms.

One condition sits outside the applicant's control. The candidate has to upload a No Objection Certificate from the proposed research place, forwarded by the Head of Department and the Registrar, Director or Principal, inside the online application itself. The department has to agree before the application is even complete, which means the supervisor conversation happens before the form, not after the result.

Worth noting for anyone arriving here from a NET result page: the eligibility list in these guidelines carries no NET or SLET condition. The qualifying-exam route belongs to the pre-doctoral fellowships, not to this one.

Who cannot apply

Exclusions

The source record publishes no exclusion list, so the binding restrictions are the ones the guidelines set out as grounds for cancelling the award: misconduct, unsatisfactory progress of the research work, a candidate later found ineligible, a candidate already availing a scholarship or fellowship from any other source, a candidate found employed during the research, and any false information or fraudulent activity by the awardee, per the UGC guidelines.

Two of those bite quietly. Holding another fellowship or project at the time of selection is not fatal by itself, but the guidelines require the candidate to surrender one of the two awards. The other bar is wider than the word "employed" suggests. An appointment may not be accepted or held at all, paid or unpaid, and no emoluments, salary or stipend may come in from anywhere else while the award runs - a certification the awardee signs on the Joining Report itself, not something checked only at selection. "Unpaid" is the word that catches people: an honorary visiting attachment carrying no money is still an appointment.

Continuation

Renewal conditions

There is no annual re-application. The award runs its full tenure on paperwork, and at the first level that paperwork is quarterly rather than yearly: the fellow submits a Continuation Certificate at the end of every three months, and that is what makes the next three months of fellowship drawable, per the UGC guidelines.

Above that sits an annual progress report, routed through the senior faculty member the fellow works with and the head of the department. After 2 years the work may be examined by a departmental research committee constituted by the university or institute, whose comments go to the identified agency, and where progress is found unsatisfactory the Commission may terminate the award at any time during the tenure. Its decision on that is final.

The last stretch has a publication condition attached to the money. The guidelines ask for at least 4 research papers, 2 national and 2 international, with two submitted at the departmental review committee stage and two by the end of the tenure, and they state that the last two instalments are released only after the feedback and the research work reach the UGC-INFLIBNET repository. The completion certificate follows the comprehensive report, an abstract of about 500 words and the publications.

What you get

Award & benefits

The fellowship steps up once, at the start of the third year, and the contingency grant never moves. These are the rates revised with effect from 1 December 2014 and printed in the guidelines of 30.05.2016, which is still the file UGC serves at its own link today.

House rent runs through three separate routes, and the one you land in decides whether you see the money at all. Route one is the hostel. Where the institution provides a single-seated hostel seat, the only housing money that reaches the fellow is the hostel fee itself, with mess, electricity and water charges carved out of it, and HRA is shut off entirely for anyone living there. Where no hostel accommodation is available and the host institution arranges single accommodation instead, the rent actually paid may be reimbursed subject to the HRA ceiling under Government of India norms. Where the fellow arranges accommodation independently, HRA follows the Government of India categorisation of cities. Each route needs its own certificate routed through the institution, per the UGC guidelines.

No separate or fixed medical assistance is provided. The fellow may use the medical facilities the host university, institution or college already runs.

• The financial assistance available under the scheme is as follows: Sl. No.ItemRate of Fellowship (Pre-revised)Rate of Fellowship (Revised w. e. f. 01.12.2014)1Fellowship @ ₹16,000/- per month@ ₹38,800/- per month for first 2 years & ₹46,500/- per month from third years onwards.2Contingency@₹30,000/- per annum@₹50,000/- per annum3Departmental Assistance10% of the Post Doctoral Fellowship to the host InstitutionNot applicable4Escorts/Reader/Assistance@ ₹2,000/- per month (fixed) in cases of physically disabled & blind Candidate.@ ₹2,000/- per month (fixed) in cases of physically disabled & blind Candidate.5HRAAs per University /Institution rules.As per University /Institution rules.House Rent Allowance:
• Suitable single-seated hostel accommodation may be provided to the candidates in the institutions. In such cases, the fellow is eligible to draw only hostel fees excluding mess, electricity, water charges, etc. A certificate to this effect is to be furnished through the Registrar/Director/Principal. HRA is not permissible for those candidates who are staying in Hostel accommodation.
• In case of non-availability of hostel accommodation, the fellow may be provided with single accommodation by the host institution. In such cases, the rent paid by the fellow on an actual basis may be reimbursed subject to the ceiling of HRA as per Govt. of India norms.
• If the fellow makes her own arrangements of accommodation, he/she may be entitled to draw HRA as per the categorization of cities by the Govt. of India.
• Medical: No separate/fixed medical assistance is provided. However, the Post-Doctoral Fellow may avail of the medical facilities available in the University/Institution/College.
• Leave: Leave for a maximum period of 30 days in a year in addition to public holidays may be taken by the Post-Doctoral Fellow with the approval of the Head of the Department. However, they are not entitled to any other vacations, such as summer, winter, and pooja vacations.
• Candidates are eligible for maternity/ paternity leave at full rates of the fellowship as per Government of India rules once during the tenure of the award.
• Academic leave: The fellow may be allowed to avail academic leave without fellowship and contingency for a period not exceeding one year during the tenure of the award for academic/teaching assignment/ foreign visit in connection with research work. The expenditure on travel cannot be claimed from UGC. The period of leave without fellowship will be counted towards the tenure.
• Note: All kinds of leaves shall be approved by the University/Institute/College.
• Duration of Fellowship: The tenure of the award is five years with no provision for further extension.

What to prepare

Documents required

The record lists the ordinary file - identity, proof of age, marksheets, the caste certificate, bank details. Two documents in this scheme arrive on prescribed UGC proformas instead, and neither is signed by the candidate alone.

The first falls due before the application can be submitted at all: the No Objection Certificate at Annexure-I. It is not a one-line letter: it certifies that the institution has no objection to the candidate pursuing post-doctoral research in a named department, that general physical facilities such as furniture and space are available and will be provided, and that the institution will abide by the rules governing the scheme. It carries the seals of both the Head of Department and the Registrar, Principal or Director, per the UGC guidelines.

The second is not needed until an award exists. The Joining Report at Annexure-II asks for the bank account number, the IFSC code, the MICR code and the Aadhaar number, because the fellowship is credited directly to the awardee's account and Aadhaar was made mandatory for the disbursement of government fellowships by a 2016 Ministry of Human Resource Development instruction to UGC, per the same guidelines.

Step by step

How to apply

Applications open once a year, online. UGC advertises the cycle in leading newspapers and in Employment News and puts a short notification on its website, and candidates then apply strictly as instructed on the online application portal. Incomplete applications are not placed before the Expert Committee, which is the most avoidable way to lose a whole cycle, per the UGC guidelines.

Tracking splits across two places. The result is published on the UGC website, and the award letter itself is downloaded from the UGC online application portal rather than posted, so the portal login stays useful after the result appears. After that the trail leaves the portal for a bank counter. A copy of the award letter and the joining report, on the Annexure-II proforma carrying a photograph, address and contact number, are taken to a designated branch, and which branches qualify is a list UGC publishes rather than a choice the fellow makes.

Payment status, unlike application status, is not a candidate-side screen. The guidelines put the monthly master data on continuation, HRA, upgradation and resignation in the hands of the university, institution or college, which updates it on the dedicated web portal, and payment follows from that data. So when an instalment stops, the question goes to the institution's office first, not to the portal.

How winners are picked

Selection process

Applications are scrutinised by a screening committee, and shortlisted candidates are then called to appear before an Expert Committee constituted by the Commission. No TA or DA is paid for attending, so the travel cost of the interview sits with the candidate. Neither stage carries an appeal: the Commission's word is the last one, and it can pull an award back without saying why, per the UGC guidelines.

Selection carries a dated consequence that decides arrears. The effective date of release of the fellowship is 1st April of the selection year or the actual date of joining, whichever is later, per the same guidelines. Joining early does not start the money early; joining late does push it back.

Reservation for SC, ST and persons with disability follows the provisions of the Constitution and the instructions issued by the Government of India from time to time. The guidelines do not publish a fixed split of the year's slots between Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe applicants, so the distribution follows those norms rather than a quota stated inside the scheme.

Fine print

Terms & conditions

Leave is the condition awardees ask about most, and it is narrower than a university appointment. A fellow may take leave for a maximum of 30 days in a year in addition to public holidays, with the approval of the Head of the Department, and is not entitled to summer, winter or pooja vacations. Maternity or paternity leave at full rates of the fellowship is available once during the tenure, as per Government of India rules, per the UGC guidelines.

Academic leave works differently and is easy to misread. The fellow may take academic leave for a period not exceeding one year during the tenure, for an academic or teaching assignment or a foreign visit connected to the research, but it comes without fellowship and without contingency, travel expenditure cannot be claimed from UGC, and the period still counts towards the tenure. Every kind of leave is approved by the university, institute or college.

Two further rules shape the tenure. Transfer of the research place is allowed only once during the entire tenure and is done by the institution under intimation to UGC. Leaving early is not penalised, but it is dated: the grant is released only up to the day of relinquishment, and word of it goes to the identified agency with UGC kept informed. No extension is permissible beyond the tenure, at the end of which the awardee ceases to be a UGC fellow with immediate effect.

Get help

Contact

The guidelines are issued by the University Grants Commission at Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi 110002, the joining report is headed to its SA-III Section, and the continuation certificate and progress report forms are addressed to the Selection and Awards Bureau, per the UGC guidelines. No scheme-specific helpline number or dedicated email address appears in them. Every certificate and report in the scheme travels through the Registrar, Director or Principal of the host institution, which makes that office the working first point of contact for a fellow.

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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