128 Panjab University students benefitted from Covid EWS concession: RTI reply

Radhika Pasrija

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Chandigarh, January 12

Panjab University (PU) has witnessed a rise in the number of students benefitting from scholarships and fee concessions over the last few years. As many as 128 students took advantage of the Covid-19 EWS concession during 2020–22, according to a response to an RTI application.

The concession meant for orphans has seen more than a 50% increase in takers in the last decade. After Covid, there has been a 30% surge in takers. Between 2020 and 2023, a total of 363 students opted for the concession. It is believed that students whose parents died of the disease benefitted from freeships and exemptions.

Assistant Registrar (Accounts II) Parveen Sharma said, “Previously, Centre for Distance and Online Education (formerly University School of Open Learning) students were not aware of the scholarships and fee concessions. In the last four to five years, we actively started promoting these benefits by sending in circulars to the chairpersons concerned.”

As many as 231 students availed themselves of the merit-cum-means tuition fee support, which is offered to students who are meritorious but with limited means and resources, during 2021–22, the highest in the last nine years. Maintaining a stable record, the 5% freeship offered to students belonging to the EWS category added to the advantage of 119 students during 2013–24 and 213 in 2022–23.

The fee concession offered to the blind and physically handicapped had no takers during the 2013–2017 period. But as awareness grew and all categories of visual impairment were brought under the ambit of the concession, the number of beneficiaries surged by 10 times between 2017 and 2023.

The scholarship fund reserved for students in the colleges affiliated with the PU recorded the highest number of takers in the 2022–23 session at 410.