Overview
- Congress MP Shashi Tharoor asked the Education Ministry on Tuesday for five years of year‑wise data on UGC‑NET qualifiers, JRF awardees and the share of qualifiers who received JRFs and for a plan to address the growing gap.
- The ministry, replying through Minister of State Dr Sukanta Majumdar, said JRFs are awarded via the UGC National Eligibility Test and confirmed UGC sanctions 11,750 JRF slots each year and that 6% of NET takers qualify for Assistant Professor eligibility.
- Instead of the requested year‑wise figures the reply outlined existing fellowship schemes, noted other ministries offer scholarships and explained the Non‑NET Fellowship’s purpose, but it did not provide the detailed data Tharoor sought.
- Tharoor criticised the response as disappointing and highlighted the scale of the mismatch with recent session results showing roughly 5,000 JRF qualifiers against more than 700,000 NET examinees in individual sessions.
- The lack of transparent data and the frozen Rs 8,000 Non‑NET stipend raise affordability and access concerns for uncapped numbers of PhD aspirants and could prompt further parliamentary pressure and calls for a full review of fellowship funding and research capacity.