Fully-funded scholarships for Sri Lankans from closest neighbour
View(s):The Indian Government’s fully-funded scholarships through the Indian Council for Cultural Relations for Lankan students who want to pursue higher education provides an opportunity at undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD (Research) levels in a wide range of subjects.
The scholarships offer more than 200 candidates an opportunity to study in over 120 leading universities and institutes in India.
These scholarships, which have changed many lives, cover the tuition fees of each candidate for the duration of the course. The Indian Government also made sure to provide subsidiary facilities that scholarship holders require to continue their academic journey successfully such as a monthly sustenance allowance, annual grants for books and stationery, hostel facilities inside the respective campus for selected candidates, in addition to airfare to the nearest destination in India and an annual grant for educational tours to various parts of the country. Several other auxiliary benefits make students’ learning experience effective and efficient.
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- Silva
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- Varnie
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- Rohini
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- Nisansala
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- Yuthmi
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- Rathikala
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- Kavitharan
The ICCR scholarships are provided under several scholarship schemes such as Nehru Memorial Scholarship Scheme which provides a platform to undergraduates to pursue undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD courses in all disciplines including engineering, science, business, economics, commerce, and humanities.
Arts and religious studies, Rajiv Gandhi Scholarship Schemeprovides a platform for students to pursue IT/BE/B Tech courses under this scheme. Maulana Azad Scholarship Scheme facilitates students to pursue their studies in Masters level courses with preference to engineering, science and agriculture. Commonwealth Scholarship Scheme is another valuable grant that helps students pursue their academic journey through undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD courses in all disciplines including Engineering, Science, Business, Economics, Commerce, Humanities, Arts and Religious studies. AYUSH Scholarship scheme allows many students to pursue their undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD courses in Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy.
Apart from these fully-funded life-changing scholarships, the Indian Government extended their hand of generosity to provide 500 more partial scholarships for Lankan students to extend their academic prowess annually.
The Indian High Commission in Sri Lanka is currently in the process of awarding over 200 fully-paid scholarships for the academic year 2024-25, enabling recipients to pursue higher studies at some of India’s top universities. 7 candidates who were selected so far for this year’s intake were present at the Indian High Commission in Sri Lanka on June 16 to receive their visa to start this life-changing journey.
The opportunity to learn in a foreign platform and to be able to access new knowledge with a huge amount of facilities to aid their journey has meant so much for Lankan students to achieve their dreams. Kavitharan who was selected for a grant for a Master’s in Computer Applications at Cochin University of Science and Technology in the recent scholarship award said: “I dream many days to visit India and that dream came true in a way that I never imagined through receiving a grant through ICCR scholarship scheme. I always wanted to do my Master’s in a foreign country and after comparing many countries I chose India due to its high-quality education system, especially in the field of IT.”
S Varnie, a student from Mullaitivu, who was selected for a Postgraduate in Hindu Studies at the Banaras Hindu University of Varanasi stated: “I am thrilled and thankful for being one of the twelve Sri Lankan students to get selected for ICCR grant, especially with the poor background that I come from, the financial support and opportunity here I received to continue my academic journey where my university lecturers at Jaffna university guided me to obtain this ICCR scholarship.”
Yuthmi Nimethra another lucky student who got selected to Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi to pursue a BA in Hindustani under an ICCR scholarship stated: “I got to know about this scholarship programme through my school and I chose to apply for this because even from my young days I wanted to pursue my high studies in India because of the passion I have for Indian music culture due to the calm and meditational attributes the Indian music poses.” She also stated, “I am delighted with this opportunity because all of my plans are aligned with Indian music, and also I think this will be a great platform for me to improve my skills as well as my English and Hindi language knowledge will be improved thanks to this.”
Nisansala Subhasini Jayawardhana a senior lecturer from the Eastern University of Sri Lanka who received a scholarship through ICCR grant for her to pursue her PhD in Journalism and Mass Communication at Bharathiar University stated: “As a lecturer, I am really amased by the high quality that the Indian education system poses and only after I went for my Master’s previous time, I was able to discover many important subject areas which I was not aware of previously. I was able to use new areas and methods I learnt during my Master’s in India to the teaching efforts in my lectures at the university to help students to gain a more vibrant and deep understanding on subject areas.”
When asked why a Lankan should choose India for their higher education she said: “The education pattern system and subject areas that India has, has more similarities and relevance to Sri Lanka rather than western educational systems. Therefore, I think India has a better background for Sri Lankans to excel in their educational efforts compared to other countries in many contrasts with affordable prices and all the high-quality facilities within a friendly and homely environment for
Sri Lankan students to excel in their academic journeys.”
Manushi Silva, a former journalist, selected for the ICCR grant for her Master’s in Linguistics from the University of Delhi said: “Even from my university days I wanted to do my Master’s in Linguistics from the University of Delhi and I got to know about this after referring the Sri Lanka University Grant Commission website.” She also added: “The well-qualified academic staff and the number of amenities such as hostels, and well-equipped libraries the Indian universities offer is amazing”. Finally, she mentioned, “In my view, one of the best things about this grant is the extended age limit that is there for applying for the ICCR grant where they do not see age as a barrier to education where it allows older students like us to pursue our dreams and academic studies without any obstacles and as a Catholic, I think God paved this life-changing opportunity.”
Eligibility criteria differ from programme to programme, where undergraduate courses applicants should have a minimum ‘S’ pass in all subjects including GCE A/L General English, and the age must be between 18-40 years to apply. Postgraduate course applicants should have a valid and relevant UG degree and should be within the age limit of 18-40 years. PhD applicants should have a valid and relevant postgraduate degree, should be in the age limit of 50 years or below. For candidates who are applying for engineering courses such as BE/ B. Tech programmes, the candidate must have mandatorily taken physics, chemistry and mathematics at GCE A/L.
The Indian High Commission advised applicants to visit respective university/institute websites regularly for information on courses offered, eligibility criteria and general information about the university/institute before applying for admission. IELTS/TOFEL, etc are not mandatory for the mentioned scholarship schemes. However, the applicant should be adequately proficient in the English language, as English is the medium of instruction.
An opportunity that changed lives for many years and keeps doing so, ICCR is a platform for scholars to overcome all sorts of challenges and obstacles to excel in their academic efforts to create an amazing future through this life-changing opportunity.
- Kevin De Alwis
Pix by Priyanka Samaraweera
| The application process The application criteria for these scholarships can be done through the following steps. Step 1 Register and submit an online application at www.mohe.gov.lk Step2 Valid applications are short-listed. Shortlisted applicants will be interviewed to gauge their knowledge in their respective subjects as well as their proficiency in English. Step 3 Selected candidates have to register online at ICCR, A2A portal a2ascholarships.iccr.gov.in and obtain a username and password. Log in to the A2A portal using the generated username and password, fill up the requisite details, including universities and course preferences, and upload all necessary documents in scanned format. Step 4 Selected candidates will receive offers from the indicated universities. Thereafter, the final award of the scholarship will be through an offer letter issued by the High Commission of India. These scholarships are administered through the Ministry of Education Sri Lanka. More details of the scholarships are on the High Commission of India, Colombo website (https://hcicolombo.gov.in) and Ministry of Education website (www.mohe.gov.lk).
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| Professional level training coursesThe Indian Government offers over 400 fully-funded slots every year to Lankan Government personnel/nationals for short-term training courses towards enhancing their skill sets through Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC). For professionals to improve their careers, a wide variety of courses in 25 streams ranging from accounts, audit, banking and finance to cyber technology; environment and climate change to management and leadership, human resource development and planning to logistics and management, media and journalism to urban planning, marine and aeronautical engineering to women empowerment and many more, are available. Suitable candidates can choose and apply to experience a career-defining opportunity. For more information on the ITEC, please visit www.itecgoi.in |
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