Does an LL.M student get the same amount as a Ph.D scholar?

No. The 2018-19 advertisement sets Ph.D at Rs 1000 per month and P.G LLM at Rs 500 per month, in the directorate's advertisement, and the 2021-22 sanction order paid the same gap as annual sums, Rs 12000 per Ph.D scholar against Rs 6000 per LL.M student, in the 2021-22 sanction order.

What scholarships are available for PhD students in Assam?

Besides this one, the directorate runs the Chief Minister's Financial Assistance Programme, which is narrower about where you study and larger in what it pays. It is for students at the twelve Institutions of Eminence and the top 30 NIRF ranked institutions, requires family income below Rs 6,00,000 a year, sets the age limit below 35 years for Ph.D and post-doctoral programmes, and runs four years for a Ph.D, per the CM's Financial Assistance portal. Its rate clause gives Rs 24,000 a year at graduation level and Rs 36,000 at postgraduation level, with no separate Ph.D figure. The P.G Research Scholarship carries none of those limits: any recognised university, inside Assam or outside it, and no published income or age test.

Will the Assam PhD amount increase in 2026?

No revision of this scheme's rate has been published. The department's scholarships page still shows the Ph.D line at Rs 750 per month, in the department's scholarships listing, but that table covers 2016-2017 and 2017-2018; the directorate's 2018-19 advertisement already set Rs 1000. The bigger change for research scholars is a separate scheme: on 21 January 2026 the Chief Minister announced Rs 25,000 a month for research scholars, and Rs 40,000 for Divyang research scholars, under Atal Vichal Agragami Assam, with the launch scheduled for 11 February 2026, as reported by DD News.

The 2025-26 portal page asks for 60% marks. Does that apply to me?

That clause was written for another scheme. Below its headings, the PG Research Scholarship 2025-26 page repeats the Combined Merit Scholarship 2025-26 page word for word, including the 60% bar, the first-semester degree clause and the male-only wording, as the Combined Merit 2025-26 page shows. The test the directorate wrote for this scheme is 55% with admission as a research or LL.M scholar, in the P.G Research Scholarship advertisement. Which of the two the directorate applied to 2025-26 applicants has not been published, so ask it at dhe-asm@nic.in before relying on either.

Can I hold this alongside a UGC fellowship or another award?

The advertisement is silent on it. It asks for admission as a research scholar, Assam domicile, the marks bar, a qualification from a recognised institution and a working bank account, and says nothing either way about other awards held at the same time. A scholar already drawing a fellowship should get the directorate's answer in writing before the institution forwards the form, rather than reading the silence as permission.

What is the last date to apply in 2026?

None has been announced. The last date published for this scheme was 20 November 2025, for the 2025-26 round, on the PG Research Scholarship 2025-26 page. Past rounds have opened in September and in November with windows of a few weeks, so the PRC, the guide's certificate or admission receipt and the bank details are worth keeping ready from the start of the session.

Can students pursuing Doctor of Philosophy or Master of Laws degrees in universities outside Assam apply for this financial assistance?

Yes, students can apply even if they are studying in recognized colleges or universities in other states of the country, as long as they are domiciled in Assam and meet all other eligibility requirements.

What is the minimum academic performance requirement in terms of marks for applicants seeking this scholarship for advanced degree programs?

Applicants must have obtained at least 55% or above marks in their last qualifying examination. This minimum percentage requirement is mandatory for eligibility consideration under this scholarship program.

Are Post Doctorate Research Scholars eligible to apply for this financial assistance program along with Doctor of Philosophy students?

Yes, both Doctor of Philosophy students and Post Doctorate Research Scholars who have registered their names in any recognized universities are eligible to apply for this scholarship program.

What happens if a scholarship recipient fails to maintain their registration status as a research scholar during the benefit period?

The applicant must maintain registration as Doctor of Philosophy or Post Doctorate Research Scholar in recognized universities throughout the benefit period. Failure to maintain registration may result in discontinuation of scholarship benefits.

What academic documentation is required to prove uniformly good academic records when applying for this research-level scholarship program?

Applicants must provide academic record documents including transcripts and certificates, along with mark sheets of the last qualifying examination showing at least 55% marks to demonstrate their academic performance.

Can Master of Laws students apply for this scholarship program, or is it exclusively available for Doctor of Philosophy degree pursuers?

Yes, Master of Laws students are eligible to apply for this scholarship program. The scheme specifically aims to provide financial assistance to students pursuing both Doctor of Philosophy and Master of Laws degree courses.

How will the scholarship amount be transferred to successful applicants once they are selected through the evaluation process?

The scholarship amount will be disbursed through Direct Benefit Transfer mode directly to the bank accounts of selected beneficiaries after receiving financial sanction approval from the competent authority.

What is the first step applicants should take when they want to apply for this post-graduate level scholarship program?

Applicants must wait for the official advertisement to be published by the Higher Education Department announcing the opening of applications before they can begin the application process.

Are there any specific academic performance standards that scholarship recipients must maintain during their research studies to continue receiving benefits?

Yes, scholarship recipients must maintain academic performance standards as per university requirements throughout their study period to ensure continuation of scholarship benefits under this program.

What type of registration certificate documentation is required from applicants pursuing advanced research degrees under this scholarship scheme?

Applicants must provide a Registration Certificate as Doctor of Philosophy or Post Doctorate Research Scholar from a recognized university as part of their application documentation requirements.

Who is responsible for the initial verification and processing of online applications submitted by candidates for this scholarship program?

The submitted online applications are received from universities and processed by concerned authorities for initial verification and compilation before moving to the selection committee stage.

What domicile requirement must be fulfilled by applicants seeking financial assistance through this post-graduate scholarship program for advanced degrees?

Applicants must be domiciled in Assam and must provide an Assam Domicile Certificate as part of their application documentation to establish their eligibility for this scholarship.

Scholarship

Post Graduate Scholarship for Ph.D./LLM Students(PGSPLS)

Cash

State/ UT

Higher Education Department, Assam Assam myScheme record

Eligibility

The applicant must have registered their names as Doctor of Philosophy/Post Doctorate Research Scholar in any recognized universities.

Region

Assam

Award

Cash

Deadline

Not published by the source

Overview

About PGSPLS

The Post Graduate Scholarship for Ph.D./LLM Students puts research scholars and law postgraduates under one scheme name, and Assam's Higher Education Department has priced the two separately in every rate document it has published. Its scholarships page lists them as separate budget lines, "P. G Research Scholarship for Ph.D." and "P.G. L.L.M. Scholarship (For Law)", each with its own monthly rate, in the department's scholarships listing. The Directorate of Higher Education, which runs the scheme, calls it the P.G Research Scholarship, and that is the name on its advertisements, its sanction orders and its application page.

The most recent rates the directorate has printed for this scheme are in its advertisement for the 2018-19 round, headed as a fresh award under the Post Graduate Research (Ph.D/M.Phil/Law L.L.M) Scholarship Scheme: Rs 1000 per month for a Ph.D and Rs 500 per month for a P.G LLM, with M.Phil as a third line, in the directorate's 2018-19 advertisement. The department's older table shows what those lines paid before that advertisement, and how few scholars each reached.

Scholarship line	Quantum rate	Beneficiaries, 2016-2017	Beneficiaries, 2017-2018
P. G Research Scholarship for Ph.D.	Rs 750 per month	4	27
Scholarship for M.Phil	Rs 500 per month	nil	1
P.G. L.L.M. Scholarship (For Law)	Rs 400 per month	2	4

The 2018-19 Ph.D and LL.M rates were still what the directorate paid in 2021-22, when its sanction order released twelve months of the Ph.D and LL.M rates to each scholar, and no later rate for this scheme has been published. One wording gap matters: myScheme's eligibility points name only Ph.D and post-doctoral registration, while the directorate's advertisement opens the award to LL.M, M.Phil, Ph.D and post-doctoral research scholars alike.

Who runs it

Provider

Higher Education Department, Assam

State / UT Government

Higher Education Department · Higher Education Department, Assam

At a glance

Key details

Level	State/ UT
Scheme type	Not published by the source
Category	Education & Learning
Beneficiaries	Individual
Benefit type	Cash
Application mode	Offline
Direct Benefit Transfer	No
Tags	Education, Scholarship, PhD, LLM, Student, Research, Academic
Source record	myScheme, 2026-07-08official-site· 2026-07-08

Calendar

Important dates

There is no fixed annual calendar; the scheme opens when the directorate advertises, and the rounds on record opened in different months. In 2018-19 the online form for Ph.D, M.Phil and LL.M scholars stayed open from 10 to 30 September 2018, and their university or college registrar had until 10 October 2018 to get the hard copies to Kahilipara, in the 2018-19 advertisement. The 2025-26 page states that the last date of application for PG Research Scholarship 2025-26 was 20 November 2025, and the instructions it shares with the Combined Merit page give an opening date of 8 November 2025 and an institutional deadline of 6 December 2025, on the PG Research Scholarship 2025-26 page.

Payment has come near the end of the financial year. Both sanction orders on record were signed in February: on 18/02/2019 for 2018-19, in the 2018-19 sanction order, and on 25/02/2022 for 2021-22, in the 2021-22 sanction order.

When this page was last checked, the directorate's operations portal still pointed to its 2025-26 scholarship pages and carried no newer notice, on the DHE operations portal.

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

The 2018-19 advertisement sets four tests: admission as an LL.M, M.Phil, Ph.D or post-doctoral research scholar in a recognised university for the session being advertised, which was 2018-2019 in that notice; at least 55% marks in the last qualifying examinations, which the advertisement glosses as UG and P.G; domicile of Assam, with the PRC marked mandatory; and a valid, up-to-date bank account in the applicant's own name, preferably with SBI, per the 2018-19 advertisement.

Reading the marks clause as UG and P.G means a Ph.D applicant's undergraduate result is in play alongside the master's, not the master's alone. No income ceiling appears in the advertisement or in the myScheme record, although the myScheme description speaks of helping poor students; past those four tests, the selection clause mentions only merit and the budget allocation.

The applicant must have registered their names as Doctor of Philosophy/Post Doctorate Research Scholar in any recognized universities.
The applicant must be domiciled in Assam.
The applicant must have obtained at least 55% or above marks in the last qualifying examination.
The applicant must have uniformly good academic records.

Who cannot apply

Exclusions

Neither the advertisement nor the myScheme record publishes a list of who is barred. For a research scholar the practical bar is the forwarding step: a form that the registrar or principal has not sent on to Kahilipara by the advertised date is out, even if the online submission went through, per the 2018-19 advertisement. The 2025-26 application page adds cancellation for three faults on the form itself: missing entries, false information and a dead account number, on the PG Research Scholarship 2025-26 page.

Continuation

Renewal conditions

Continuation is decided by the scholar's own institution, not by a fresh merit list. The 2021-22 sanction order says the scholarship will be renewed after a satisfactory progress report and a recommendation certificate are received from the head of institution or the supervisor, in the 2021-22 sanction order. The 2018-19 order asked for the progress report alone, in the 2018-19 sanction order, so the recommendation certificate is the newer of the two conditions. Neither order names any other route into the next year's sanction.

What you get

Award & benefits

The money arrives as a yearly sum fixed in a sanction order, not as a monthly credit. The order dated 25/02/2022 sanctioned Rs 6,93,000 for the M.Phil, Ph.D and LLM scholars listed in its annexure, at these amounts per head, in the 2021-22 sanction order.

Course registered	Sanctioned for the year, per scholar	Scholars named in the annexure
Ph.D	Rs 12000	40
M.Phil	Rs 9000	21
LL.M	Rs 6000	4

Rs 12000 and Rs 6000 are the advertised Ph.D and LL.M monthly rates carried across twelve months, which makes a law student's year worth exactly half a research scholar's. The order asks the Deputy Director of Higher Education, as drawing and disbursing officer, to draw the amount against the budget head for Post Graduate Research and M.Phil scholarship, and the advertisement names DBT as the way it reaches the scholar.

Law students have not been paid in every round. The 2018-19 order carries a file number naming M.Phil, Ph.D and LLM, yet it sanctioned Rs 6,06,000 as P.G Research Scholarships for Ph.D and M.Phil only, with Rs 1,62,000 of that on the M.Phil annexure, in the 2018-19 sanction order. It has no LL.M annexure at all.

Financial Assistance: Scholarship is provided to the poor students to help them achieve the benefits of Higher Education.
Mode of Disbursement: Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT)
_The applicant must maintain registration as Doctor of Philosophy/Post Doctorate Research Scholar in recognized universities._
_Academic performance standards must be maintained as per university requirements._

What to prepare

Documents required

The directorate's own list is built to prove a live research relationship, and it is not the same as myScheme's document list. The 2018-19 advertisement asks for scanned copies of a PRC from the Deputy Commissioner or Sub-Divisional Officer, a certificate from the registrar or head of the institution where the candidate is studying, a certificate from the research guide or a copy of the admission receipt, the final mark sheet of the last qualifying examinations, and a photograph and signature, per the 2018-19 advertisement.

The guide's certificate and the admission receipt appear in that list as alternatives, so a newly admitted scholar who has not yet been allotted a guide can file with the receipt.

Registration Certificate as Doctor of Philosophy/Post Doctorate Research Scholar from Recognized University.

Domicile Certificate of Assam.

Mark Sheets of Last Qualifying Examination showing at least 55% marks.

Academic Record Documents (transcripts/certificates).

Step by step

How to apply

The scheme runs in two stages, which is why the myScheme record lists the application mode as offline while its own description says applications are accepted online, in the myScheme record. The scholar applies online, prints the submitted form and hands it with the certificates to the registrar, principal or head of the institution; the institution then sends the hard copies to the Directorate of Higher Education at Kahilipara, Guwahati, under its seal and signature, by a later deadline of its own, per the 2018-19 advertisement.

For 2025-26 the directorate opened an application page headed PG Research Scholarship 2025-26, with its own login and registration, at the PG Research Scholarship 2025-26 page. Everything on it below the headings, including its eligibility clauses, its rates and its instruction that a college or university level committee verify each form, reads word for word as the Combined Merit Scholarship 2025-26 page does. The directorate has not published separate 2025-26 instructions for Ph.D and LL.M applicants.

Tracking is limited. Neither page offers a status lookup, only a login and a registration link, so a filed application is followed from inside the applicant's own account. The result is published rather than messaged: the advertisement says the list of selected beneficiaries is notified on the directorate's official website, and in practice that list is the sanction order, which names each scholar with their institution, course, bank, branch and the amount released. The directorate files those orders on its PG Research Scholarship documents page, and because the annexure prints the account and IFSC the money was sent to, a scholar whose name appears without a credit can check the bank details there first.

1
Apply offline
The official links on this page lead to the application portal.

How winners are picked

Selection process

The directorate ranks applicants on merit and stops where the year's allocation runs out, per the 2018-19 advertisement, and for this scheme that allocation is the Post Graduate Research and M.Phil scholarship head shared by all three courses, per the 2021-22 sanction order. The advertisement names no interview, no test and no reserved share for Ph.D, M.Phil or LL.M places. How the budget has fallen across the courses is visible only after the event, in the annexures: 4 of the 65 names in the 2021-22 order were LL.M students, in the 2021-22 sanction order, and the 2018-19 order named none.

Fine print

Terms & conditions

The clause with teeth is the bond. Before the award, a selected scholar must execute a bond agreeing that the entire scholarship amount drawn will be refunded if they discontinue the research work or study during the tenure of the scholarship, or violate any term of the award, per the 2018-19 advertisement. Leaving a Ph.D midway therefore turns money already received into a debt, not just a stop to future payments.

The payment conditions follow from DBT being the only route the advertisement names: the account has to be valid, current and in the scholar's own name when the sanction is drawn.

Get help

Contact

The scheme sits with the Directorate of Higher Education, Assam, Kahilipara, Guwahati 781019, and the 2025-26 application page gives dhe-asm@nic.in and directorhigherassam123@gmail.com as its email addresses, on the PG Research Scholarship 2025-26 page. The directorate's older scholarship portal adds the office telephone, 0361-2382286, and a toll-free AMTRON call centre, 18003451100, in the DHE scholarship portal. After a sanction is issued, the money is in the hands of the Deputy Director of Higher Education at Kahilipara, whom the order asks to draw and disburse it; before that, the forwarded file sits with the registrar or principal who sent it.

Source

Official links

Schemes Of Department myScheme (Government of India)

Questions

PGSPLS – FAQ

Frequently asked questions

From the official scheme FAQ (myScheme)

Read this

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.

References

Sources

department's scholarships listing – highereducation.assam.gov.in
directorate's 2018-19 advertisement – directorateofhighereducation.assam.gov.in
PG Research Scholarship 2025-26 page – dhe-operations.assam.gov.in
myScheme record – myscheme.gov.in
DHE scholarship portal – webservers.amtron.in
DD News – ddnews.gov.in