New Delhi: The Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry has decided that it will expand the scope of the non-NET fellowships and bring the benefits of the scheme to a larger number of institutions including State Universities.


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Emphasising that the fellowships will not be discontinued, ministry officials said that a decision has been taken to expand the existing awards under the non-NET fellowships and guidelines will be developed for selection, coverage, award and administration to enable an enhancement of these grants.


Officials said that in her interaction with students yesterday, HRD minister Smriti Irani had said that the Centre had directed the University Grants Commission (UGC) to not discontinue the scheme.


HRD Minister Smriti Irani had yesterday come out for a brief interaction with protesting students, who had marched up to Shastri Bhawan here, and reiterated the government's stand that the fellowships will not be discontinued.


UGC had resolved to discontinue the scheme of non-National Eligibility Test (NET) fellowship, which is provided to those undertaking research in Central universities across India, in a meeting held on October 7, citing shortage of resources.


Students began protests against the move to scrap the non-NET fellowships, after which the government had last week appointed a five-member panel to review the research grants offered by UGC, which, meanwhile, has been asked to continue all existing grants.