Post Graduate Scholarship for University Rank Holders Scheme(PGSURHS)

Overview

About PGSURHS

Topping a university at graduation does not by itself make a student a rank holder in the sense this scheme uses. The University Grants Commission ties the rank to the size of the cohort it was won against, and that clause can rule out a topper whose marks sit far above the qualifying bar.

The scheme pays a first or second rank holder at undergraduate level Rs 3,100 a month while they read for a first Master's degree, for a maximum of two years, against 3,000 sanctioned slots (UGC guidelines for the Post Graduate Scholarship for University Rank Holders). UGC's own student scholarship page states the same tenure and slot count and puts the assistance at Rs 37,200 a year (UGC, P.G. Scholarship for University Rank Holders). It was built for the student UGC worried about losing: the graduate who tops a basic science, arts or commerce programme and then leaves academics rather than enrolling for a Master's.

Where it sits today needs stating plainly, because the search results do not. The National Scholarship Portal's official FAQ describes the National Scholarship for Postgraduate Studies as an umbrella scheme created by merging four postgraduate schemes, and names the PG scholarship for university rank holders as one of the four (NSP, FAQs for National Scholarship for Postgraduate Studies). NSP's live scheme directory for the 2026-27 academic year carries only two UGC entries, the National Scholarship for Postgraduate Studies and Ishan Uday, with no separate window for rank holders (NSP, Schemes on NSP). A rank holder applying now is applying under the umbrella scheme. That is absorption rather than closure: UGC has not taken the scheme off its own student scholarship page, which still carries the slot count, the tenure and the annual rate (UGC, P.G. Scholarship for University Rank Holders), and the rank holder guidelines still govern how an award already running is paid and renewed.

Who runs it

Provider

At a glance

Key details

Calendar

Important dates

Neither UGC's scheme page nor the myScheme record puts a date against this award, and the guidelines fix the shape of the calendar rather than its dates: one application window a year on NSP, announced by a short notification on the UGC website, with the submission and verification deadlines displayed on the portal itself (UGC guidelines, NSP FAQs). Since NSP's current scheme directory does not list the rank holders scheme separately, the window a fresh applicant should be watching is the postgraduate one.

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

The rank is only the first half of the test. UGC writes it as "first and second rank holders (Not position holders)" at undergraduate level, then attaches a floor to it: the rank counts only if enough candidates sat that same examination, and the floor moves with the kind of institution.

A rank from a small department that put up fewer heads than the floor does not clear the test, however high the marks. On top of that the applicant needs a minimum of 60 per cent at undergraduate level, must be inside the age limit of 30 years, read at the time of admission to the PG course, and must be enrolled in a regular, full-time Master's programme that is their first postgraduate degree, at a recognised university, deemed university, private university, autonomous college or postgraduate college.

The stream is where the scheme is at its narrowest. UGC identifies eight undergraduate streams for the award: Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, Chemical Sciences, Earth Sciences, Mathematical Sciences, Social Sciences, Commerce and Languages (UGC guidelines). The scheme's stated objective is to strengthen those basic subjects, which is why professional courses sit outside it.

Who cannot apply

Exclusions

Distance mode, a second Master's and a shortfall on the rank or the marks floor are each written as a plain bar. The one that reaches furthest is the professional courses bar, and it is broader than it sounds. Because the scheme exists to promote study in basic courses at undergraduate level, a topper from engineering, medicine, law, pharmacy or management is out on the objective itself, not on a technicality (UGC guidelines).

One older exclusion has been reversed, and stale pages still repeat it. UGC's revised guidelines applicable from 2008-10 said degrees awarded by an autonomous college were not covered and had to be folded into the affiliating university's common ranking (UGC revised guidelines for the Post Graduate Merit Scholarship Scheme). The guidelines published on NSP admit autonomous and non-affiliated colleges in their own right, at the smaller candidate threshold.

Continuation

Renewal conditions

The second year is not automatic. The award is renewed for the next year of study on receipt of a renewal form, subject to good conduct and the prescribed attendance, and a student who fails to be promoted to the next level forfeits it. A change in course of study is not permitted. The guidelines also split awardees by the year of the award: anyone already on the books when this set of rules came in stays on UGC's earlier route, where designated Canara Bank branches handled the money rather than the payment chain described below (UGC guidelines).

Read the renewal clause together with the cancellation clause, because they set the real bar. Scoring below 60 per cent in the first year of the Master's programme is listed as an unsatisfactory progress report and is a ground for cancelling the scholarship, so first-year performance carries the second year's money with it.

What you get

Award & benefits

Rs 3,100 a month for two years, with no extra grant in lieu of hostel charges or medical charges, is the whole of it. The rate reads as monthly, but the money does not arrive monthly: after selection the list of awardees is pushed to the Public Financial Management System by NIC, and PFMS generates the payment files on an annual basis (UGC guidelines). UGC states the same benefit as Rs 37,200 a year (UGC, P.G. Scholarship for University Rank Holders). An awardee is not debarred from accepting another scholarship, a permission the umbrella scheme does not carry.

What the scheme pays now, against what it paid under the older guidelines that many pages still quote:

• Financial Assistance
• Scholarship of ₹3,100 per month.
• Scholarship is provided for a maximum period of two years (full duration of the postgraduate course).
• Scholarship is disbursed through the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) mode.
• No additional assistance is provided towards hostel fees, medical expenses, or other incidental charges.
• Students receiving this scholarship are not debarred from accepting other scholarships.
• Number of Scholarships and Tenure
• Total Scholarships Available: 3,000
• Duration of Scholarship: Two years
• The scholarship is not extendable beyond the approved tenure.

What to prepare

Documents required

The paperwork that decides the file is the pair of annexures, and neither is something a student can produce alone. The rank certificate at Annexure I is signed and sealed by the Controller of Examination and must state the stream, the rank obtained and the total number of students who appeared at that undergraduate examination, with the institution's status ticked from a list that runs from Central university to non-university affiliated institute. That total is the number the eligibility floor is checked against, which is why the certificate cannot be replaced by a marksheet or a topper's letter.

Annexure II, the joining report, certifies that the student joined the first year of a regular, non-professional Master's course, names the department and the affiliating university, and carries the bank account number and IFSC code alongside three signatures (UGC guidelines). The two rulebooks differ on what is actually uploaded. The rank holders guidelines have the joining report uploaded in the Annexure II format, while the umbrella scheme's guidelines tell students to upload no certificate or affidavit at all and to hand the papers to the institution, which verifies the online application against them and retains the originals (UGC guidelines for the National Scholarship for Postgraduate Studies). Either way the institution decides which papers it needs, because it is the party doing the verifying.

Step by step

How to apply

Applications are invited once a year on the National Scholarship Portal, with a short notification put up on the UGC website, and only verified online applications are considered. Incomplete applications are rejected summarily. Before verifying, the university or institute has to satisfy itself that the applicant really is a first or second rank holder out of the specified number of candidates (UGC guidelines).

The portal's own steps come first. NSP now opens with a One Time Registration before the scholarship form itself (National Scholarship Portal). The college or university, for its part, must hold a valid AISHE code and be registered on the portal through the district or state nodal officer (NSP, FAQs for National Scholarship for Postgraduate Studies), otherwise the application has nowhere to be verified. A submitted application is checked first by the institute nodal officer and then by the state nodal officer before any merit list is drawn (NSP, FAQs for National Scholarship for Postgraduate Studies).

To track it afterwards, three different screens answer three different questions. Application Status on the portal's student menu says where the form has reached, which for most of the window means whether the institution has verified it yet; the submission and verification deadlines it is racing are displayed on NSP as well (NSP FAQs). The result is checked on NSP with the user ID and password generated when the form was filed, is normally declared in November or December of the same year, and is also put on the UGC site (UGC guidelines for the National Scholarship for Postgraduate Studies). Money that has been sanctioned but not received is traced through the portal's Track Your Payment link, which opens PFMS (PFMS, Know Your Payments). A mismatch between the name on the application, the bank account number and the IFSC code stops a payment even for a selected student, so those three fields are worth checking before the form is verified rather than after.

How winners are picked

Selection process

The rank holders guidelines do not publish a scoring formula. They fix the eligibility test, hand verification to the university, and cap the awards at 3,000 slots (UGC guidelines); under the older revised guidelines the selection was described simply as purely merit based, with UGC informing the university and the awardee (UGC revised guidelines).

The umbrella scheme that now runs the postgraduate applications is far more explicit, and a rank holder applying through it is judged by those rules instead: selection strictly on all-India merit, slots allocated as per the Government of India reservation policy with 30 per cent reserved for women candidates and preference to a single girl child, half the slots in each category earmarked for arts, humanities, social sciences, law and management and half for science, engineering and technology, medical, technical, agriculture and forestry programmes, with ties at the bottom of the list broken on undergraduate marks and then on class XII marks (UGC guidelines for the National Scholarship for Postgraduate Studies).

Fine print

Terms & conditions

Aadhaar is the identifier for release of the grant. UGC was instructed by the then Ministry of Human Resource Development, by letter D.O. No. 18-7/2013-U1A dated 10 June 2016, that Aadhaar would be used for disbursement of all government scholarships paid directly into a beneficiary's account, and the student's Aadhaar details are updated through the host institution after consent is taken under the Aadhaar Act (UGC guidelines).

Beyond that, the conditions are short. No additional grant is payable for hostel or medical charges. A change of course is not permitted. The scholarship may be cancelled for misconduct reported by the university or institution, or for an unsatisfactory progress report. The older revised guidelines added a condition worth knowing if an award is already running: a student who wants to leave the course midway needs prior approval from UGC through the university, and one who discontinues without it has to refund the entire amount (UGC revised guidelines).

Get help

Contact

UGC administers and monitors the scheme from University Grants Commission, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi 110002, and publishes contact.ugc@nic.in as its address for correspondence (UGC).

Portal problems go elsewhere. A form that will not submit or an institution that cannot be found is an NSP question, at helpdesk@nsp.gov.in or 0120 6619540; a sanctioned amount that never reached the bank is a PFMS question, on the toll free number 1800 118 111. Both desks work 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM on all days except government holidays (NSP Helpdesk). Scheme-wise and district-wise nodal officers, along with grievance redressal officers, are listed under the public section of NSP for anything the helpdesks cannot settle (National Scholarship Portal).

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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