3 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Jul 21, 2026 03:17 PM IST
Thousands of students crack the UGC-NET every year hoping to land a Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) and effectively fund their PhD, but only a sliver of them actually get one. In the June session last year, 5,269 candidates qualified for JRF out of 7,51,907 who appeared; in December the same year, just 5,108 qualified for JRF out of 7,35,614 who appeared. That question landed in the Lok Sabha this week, and the government’s answer left much to be desired.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor raised the issue during the ongoing Monsoon Session, addressing it to the Ministry of Education. His questions were direct and data-driven. What he asked was a year-wise breakup, over the last five years, of how many candidates qualified the UGC-National Eligibility Test (NET), how many Junior Research Fellowships (JRFs) were actually awarded, and what proportion of qualified candidates got a fellowship.
He also asked whether the government had noticed a growing gap between the number of students clearing NET and the number who go on to receive a JRF, and if so, why that gap exists.
The Congress leader went on to add more, asking whether the government planned to increase the number of JRFs on offer, or revise the eligibility rules, including the existing percentage-based cap, to accommodate the rising number of research aspirants. And he raised a long-pending grievance: the UGC’s Non-NET Fellowship, meant for PhD scholars who don’t have NET-based funding, has stayed frozen at Rs 8,000 a month since 2006. Tharoor asked if the government was aware of this, and if so, what steps it planned to take to revise the amount, and by when.
The response, from Union Minister of State for Education Dr Sukanta Majumdar, was largely a description of how the scheme currently works rather than an answer to what was actually asked. Majumdar’s reply from the Ministry of Education clubbed all four parts of the question together.
He stated that JRFs are awarded based on NET performance, that six per cent of candidates who appear for NET qualify for Assistant Professor eligibility, and that out of this qualified pool, the UGC sanctions 11,750 JRF slots every year. He added that other ministries and organisations also offer fellowships to support PhD scholars, and that special fellowships exist for SC, ST, OBC, persons with disabilities, and single girl children.
He also noted that PhD scholars can join research projects funded by other agencies to support their work.
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On the Non-NET Fellowship, the minister simply explained its purpose: that it was introduced to partially support PhD and MPhil students who join university programmes without any financial backing, particularly benefiting students in central universities in remote areas and the Northeast. However, most questions flagged by Tharoor were left unanswered.