Scheme for Awarding Fellowships for Undergraduate and Postgraduate Students(SAFUPGS)

Overview

About SAFUPGS

The scheme name gives nothing away, and that is the first thing to sort out. On Mari Yojana, the state government's directory of schemes from across its departments, this entry is filed under the Agriculture, Farmers Welfare and Cooperation Department and opens by naming Anand Agricultural University, and the same directory carries wholly separate fellowship entries for Junagadh and Navsari agricultural universities, each with its own monthly rates (Mari Yojana scheme directory). The directory is run by the Directorate of Information, the office its About and disclaimer pages name, while the department keeps its own entries up to date (Mari Yojana, About us; Mari Yojana, Disclaimer). A figure picked up from one of those entries is not the figure paid at Anand.

What the state listing does not show is that Anand splits the award into two schemes sitting under one heading. The Directorate of Students' Welfare records them as the fellowship for undergraduate students of various faculties and the GAU fellowship for postgraduate students of various faculties, and the two are rationed on completely different arithmetic (AAU Directorate of Students' Welfare, scholarships awarded at AAU).

The two halves are nothing like the same size. In the 2021-22 academic year the undergraduate fellowship reached 153 students while the postgraduate one reached 13, out of 342 awards the university certified across all five of its student schemes (AAU, consolidated scholarship awarded 2021-22). The following year the certified total came to 319 (AAU, consolidated scholarship awarded 2022-23).

Who runs it

Provider

At a glance

Key details

Calendar

Important dates

No opening or closing date is published for this one, on the state record or on the university's own scholarship page. The academic year at Anand is the calendar it really runs on: the award attaches to a student when they join, and the documents that prove it was made surface long afterwards.

Those documents look backwards rather than forwards. The Directorate of Students' Welfare publishes them year by year, and its scholarship page currently carries the sanction letters and the beneficiary lists for the years from 2018-19 to 2022-23 (AAU, scholarship). Anyone who needs the current year's cut-off asks the college office for it.

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

Enrolment at Anand Agricultural University is where this one starts, and the state record sets out the income and single-award conditions in full. What it does not show is how the seats are rationed, and that is the part worth reading twice.

At undergraduate level the award is capped by headcount rather than by how many students apply. The university pays Rs 500 a month and extends it to 10% of the students enrolled in each faculty for their entire programme of education (AAU Directorate of Students' Welfare). Under that cap sits an academic floor that shifts after the first year: an entrant is measured on the aggregate in the Science stream of the higher secondary examination, a continuing student on the grade point average carried forward, and the scheme document states the exact qualifying mark for each (AAU, policy for award of scholarship).

At postgraduate level the ration is tighter still: one fellowship in each faculty for a Master's degree and one for a doctorate, decided purely on merit (AAU Directorate of Students' Welfare). Here the scheme document asks for at least a first class, or the equivalent grade, at the undergraduate or postgraduate examination of any recognised university, and for the candidate to be a fresh student (AAU, policy for award of scholarship).

Who cannot apply

Exclusions

The state record leaves this list blank, so the bars come from the university's own scheme document, and they land differently on the two halves of the award.

An in-service candidate of Anand Agricultural University is not eligible, and neither is a deputee sent by any other institute or organisation. That bar belongs to the postgraduate half, which also requires the candidate to be a fresh student holding no other fellowship or scholarship, and which ends the award outright if one is taken up later (AAU, policy for award of scholarship).

The undergraduate half treats the same clash as a choice rather than a disqualification. An awardee may not draw any other regular fellowship or assistance, but an existing one is to be surrendered, and the university's benefit then starts from the month of that surrender (AAU, policy for award of scholarship).

One thing is deliberately carved out of that bar. A free concession awarded by the college where the student is studying may be kept alongside the fellowship (AAU, policy for award of scholarship).

Continuation

Renewal conditions

The state record describes the money as a monthly payment sanctioned by the year, which is the budget cycle rather than the life of the award. The university's scheme document sets tenure separately, and by level. An undergraduate holds the fellowship for the total period of the graduation programme, semester-end breaks and vacation included, so each year's instalments sit inside a longer run. A postgraduate holds it for a fixed term instead, two years for a Master's degree and three years for a Ph.D., and the document is explicit that the period is in no case extended. The clock starts on the day the awardee joins the college, not on the day the award is announced (AAU, policy for award of scholarship).

What cuts it short differs by level too. An undergraduate placed on conduct probation, or falling short of the prescribed attendance in a semester, loses the fellowship. A postgraduate loses it on failing to clear a course, on an unsatisfactory grade, on leaving the studies midway, or on taking any other fellowship or scholarship (AAU, policy for award of scholarship).

What you get

Award & benefits

The monthly rate rises with the level, and so does the scarcity.

Nothing rides on top of that monthly payment. The scheme document rules out charges of the teaching institution and any other study expenses, so the figure in the table is the whole of the benefit (AAU, policy for award of scholarship).

• Undergraduate Students: ₹500/- per month for 12 months. - Postgraduate Students: ₹1,500/- per month for 12 months. - Ph.D. Student: ₹2,000/- per month for 12 months.

What to prepare

Documents required

The marksheets and photographs in the state record are the filing-once set. Two other documents do more work, because they are what actually releases money.

The first is the application form itself at postgraduate level, which is a prescribed form obtained from the Registrar rather than a sheet the student drafts. The second recurs for as long as the award lasts: an undergraduate produces a progress certificate, and a postgraduate produces a satisfactory progress report signed by the major guide (AAU, policy for award of scholarship).

Step by step

How to apply

The state record puts the application mode as offline, and it means offline the whole way down. The file moves between the college and the Registrar, and nothing about it is created on a website: a postgraduate collects the prescribed form from the Registrar and files it there, while an undergraduate files at the college, which is also where the money later appears (AAU, policy for award of scholarship).

So a student follows the money rather than a file reference, and at Anand the money leaves a published trail. An undergraduate is paid twice a year by the Principal of the college against a progress certificate, and a postgraduate is paid at the end of the semester against the major guide's report (AAU, policy for award of scholarship). Behind those payments the Directorate of Students' Welfare posts the year's sanction letter, the list of beneficiary students, the consolidated count of awards and, for 2020-21, a transaction proof of payment on the university's scholarship page (AAU, scholarship). A student who has not been paid has two places to go, the college office and that page.

How winners are picked

Selection process

Merit decides it, and two different committees do the deciding. The undergraduate fellowship is settled by a committee of the Registrar, the Director of Students' Welfare and the Dean of the faculty. The postgraduate one goes to a committee of the Dean of Post Graduate Studies, the Deans, the Director of Students' Welfare and the Registrar (AAU, policy for award of scholarship).

The postgraduate rule carries a redistribution clause that is easy to miss. Where no doctoral fellowship is awarded in a faculty, one more may go to an M.Sc. candidate in that same faculty, and where no eligible student is available in a faculty at all, the fellowship moves to another faculty (AAU, policy for award of scholarship). The postgraduate total therefore moves with the faculties instead of sitting at a fixed quota, which is how a university-wide count of 13 comes about in a year such as 2021-22 (AAU, consolidated scholarship awarded 2021-22).

Fine print

Terms & conditions

Exclusivity is the binding condition, and the scheme document resolves a clash by surrender rather than by waiver: the other award goes, and the university's benefit picks up only from the month it went (AAU, policy for award of scholarship).

The payment is also strictly a monthly figure. Institutional charges and other study expenses stay with the student under the same document, so the fellowship should be read as a stipend rather than as fee support. Continuation is documented rather than assumed as well, with the progress paperwork produced each time an instalment falls due, alongside the yearly undertaking about other awards that the state record describes.

Get help

Contact

The scheme is administered from a single office. Write to the Office of the Directorate of Students' Welfare, University Bhawan, Anand Agricultural University, Anand-388110, telephone (02692) 264688, or dsw@aau.in (AAU, Director, Students' Welfare).

For an undergraduate the useful first stop is closer than that. The Principal of the college holds both the application and, later, the payment (AAU, policy for award of scholarship).

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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