The demand to provide fellowship to research students in colleges affiliated to the University of Calicut has come to the fore again.
At present, the university gives fellowship only to those doing research in its teaching departments on the campus. Students in research centres in government and aided colleges are not getting it. The demand to extend the fellowship across colleges is being pushed forward against the backdrop of the recent decision of the Syndicate to increase the amount. The fellowship amount for junior research fellows in teaching departments has been hiked from ₹11,000 to ₹15,000. Senior research fellows will get a fellowship of ₹18,000, up from the existing ₹13,000.
Arun Karippal, former Senate member, told The Hindu on Sunday that he had raised the issue during a Senate meeting in July 2019. Accusing the university of not taking any follow-up steps, he filed a complaint with the State Human Rights Commission. The panel sought a report from the university in 2020. A Syndicate sub-committee that studied the demand gave the go-ahead to the proposal to extend the fellowship to students in research centres in affiliated colleges. When Mr. Karippal raised the issue again during a Senate meeting on February 28, 2023, he was told that the discussion on it had been deferred twice by the Syndicate.
“After the University Grants Commission [UGC] reduced the number of students who can pursue research under one research guide, many students were compelled to do it in centres in affiliated colleges. Admissions to research studies, both in university departments and affiliated colleges, are based on a single notification. The research guides in affiliated colleges are also appointed by the university in line with the UGC guidelines. The university is levying research fees from the students as well,” Mr. Karippal pointed out. In such a scenario, it was a violation of the constitutional Right to Equality to deny them the fellowship, he claimed.
University officials, however, pointed out that financial constraints were coming in the way of extending research fellowship to students in affiliated colleges.
