The Goa Education Development Corporation (GEDC) has received close to 1,800 applications under the Bursary Scheme aka “The Goa Financial Assistance towards fees for various courses under Higher and Technical Education Scheme” launched in 2014.
The IFEL received 447 fresh applications and a separate 1412 applications of the previous years were taken up for renewal in the last academic year. The scheme accepts online applications from August for a period of two months every year.
The Bursary Scheme is normally for graduate and post-graduate students where the college fees are not very expensive, GEDC Chairman Kanta Patnekar explained, adding that IFEL is preferred by students pursuing professional degree/diploma courses such as MBBS, Engineering, Nursing, Architecture, MBA, etc. The fees for such courses are always higher when compared to other courses. “Quite a few have opted for IFEL to pursue various courses abroad,” he said speaking to Herald.
The new scheme has a family income limit of Rs three lakh with no compulsion to repay the amount. “Only if a student volunteers to repay the loan, we encourage them to deposit in the corpus fund,” the chairman said.
The maximum amount of grant is, however, restricted to Rs 40,000 per annum but only those cases where the total course or programme fees do not exceed Rs 60,000 per annum are considered under this scheme.
In comparison, the IFEL has income limit of Rs 7 lakh and repayment of principal amount of loan is after one year of the completion of the course. “During this period, the beneficiaries are able to repay the loan in instalments. The benefit is that there is no interest levied by the government. The scheme is open from August to October annually and extends to December for courses that begin later in the year,” Patnekar stated.
The service operates online right from a candidate submitting forms through the website to the GEDC sending an email inviting the student for an interview. A scrutiny committee comprising of GEDC Chairman, GEDC MD, Director of Technical Education, Director of Higher Education and finance secretary/representative/member is involved in the process.
“During the interview, the committee checks the documents with its originals after which the application is put up before the sanctioning committee. Once cleared, it is then forwarded to the government for approval. The payment is thereafter made through ECS,” he explained.
Under the Bursary Scheme, the sanctioning committee will take a final decision in July to release grants to eligible candidates as per the availability of funds.
