ICCR scholarship scheme
India is well known as an education hub attracting international students from all over the world. India's robust education system, in the backdrop of its rich diversity and vibrant culture & history, affords a broad range of options for students. And, as a rapidly growing country with a leading technological edge, studying in India has much to offer, whether it is Engineering, IT, Arts, Philosophy, Political Sciences, Performing Visual Arts, Languages, Classics and so on.
Indian Council for Cultural Relations administers various scholarship schemes and awards more than 4500 scholarships under 18 different schemes to foreign students which are on offer to 192 UN-recognised countries. Amongst these 18 schemes, 05 are funded by ICCR from its grant, 10 are funded by MEA and 03 are funded by Ministry of Ayush. At a given point of time, more than 8000 ICCR-sponsored students from around 150 countries study under ICCR Scholarship Programme at various Universities and Institutions across India.
ICCR Scholarship Programme is unique in nature and stands high as compared to any other global scholarship programme for international students in terms of its number and the fully digitized system under which it runs. ICCR Scholarship Programme is run through A2A Portal (Admission to Alumni) and hand holds the foreign student from the application stage. It is the only programme that has the provision for the student to apply for scholarship and simultaneously the system takes care of admission of the student at a university of his choice. The system is transparent to the extent that it has minimal human involvement and each stakeholder from the applicant to the universities or institutions, Indian Missions abroad, ICCR Zonal Offices in various parts of India and so on have direct access to the A2A through their own login process without interfering into each other's internal processes, rules and regulations.
The process is elaborate enough that the choice of courses and universities rests with the applicant, authority to grant admission rests with the University or Institution, selection for the award of scholarship is done independently by the Indian Missions abroad on the basis of merit, and disbursal of scholarship allowances to the student along with tuition fees is paid digitally through bank transfers by ICCR.
ICCR Scholarship Programme provides the opportunity to pursue courses at UG, PG and Ph.D. levels in the disciplines of Non-STEM and STEM categories (except courses in the medicine and para-medical disciplines) at prominent Universities and Institutions across India. In addition to these academic courses, ICCR Scholarship Programme also facilitates education in the disciplines of performing and non-performing arts as well as in the disciplines of the traditional medical system of India (AYUSH – Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy).
ICCR Scholarship Programme covers costs on air travel (to join the course and after successful completion of the course), monthly scholarship allowances to cover living and accommodation, annual contingency allowance to cover the costs of stationery and books, thesis allowance for research students, tuition fees, etc. Students are required to fulfil their medical needs through a health insurance policy.
