Scholarships that go nowhere

Maharashtra’s bureaucratic drift is turning a flagship foreign-study scheme into a machine for wasting talent.

For a government that talks grandly of global exposure and human capital, the foreign merit scholarship scheme run by the Higher and Technical Education Department has acquired an unfortunate reputation. It raises hopes early, dashes them late and teaches students a brutal lesson in administrative indifference.

The scheme’s purpose is admirable. It is meant to help meritorious students from economically weak backgrounds pursue higher education abroad, acquiring skills and experience that India itself struggles to provide at scale. In theory, it is an investment in social mobility and national capability. Yet, in practice, it has become an annual exercise in delay, uncertainty and loss.

Dashed Hopes

Consider the most recent selection cycle. Of the 40 scholarships officially on offer, a final list of only 24 students was published. More striking still, just 82 applications were received from across the entire state. For a programme aimed at one of India’s most aspirational cohorts, those numbers are alarm bells. They suggest not a shortage of talent, but a collapse of confidence. Students are voting with their feet or rather, not applying at all.

Timing makes matters worse. The final list was released as the 2025 academic year was already drawing to a close. Even successful candidates can no longer take up admission abroad in the current cycle. They lose an entire academic year, through no fault of their own. And this is not a one-off aberration. It has become the norm.

Every year, advertisements are issued late. Selection procedures crawl. Senior-level meetings are postponed. Budgetary approvals lag behind the academic calendar they are meant to serve. The consequences are predictable and punishing. Students who should be boarding flights are left waiting for files to move between desks.

The contrast with other departments is telling. Students supported by the Social Welfare Department, the Bahujan Welfare Department and the Sarathi scholarship scheme are already well into their studies abroad. Their selections were completed on time; their funding aligned with university calendars. The difference is not merely financial. It is administrative competence.

The state government has, on paper, adopted a common and comprehensive policy for all foreign scholarship schemes. Yet implementation varies wildly. In the Higher and Technical Education Department’s case, there are no binding timelines, no clearly assigned responsibility, and no penalties for delay. Accountability dissolves into process. The cost is borne entirely by students - academically, financially and psychologically.

Outreach is another weak link. The scheme barely reaches colleges and universities. There is little systematic publicity, no regular guidance camps, and scant counselling for prospective applicants navigating the complexities of foreign admissions. Unsurprisingly, awareness is low and misinformation high. Over time, word spreads that the process is unreliable. Applications dry up. Trust evaporates.

Sclerotic Administration

The numbers tell a quiet story of decline. When the scheme was launched in 2018–19, ten students were sent abroad each year. That figure has since been raised to 40 - on paper at least. In reality, the number of beneficiaries has stagnated. Capacity has expanded without the administrative spine needed to support it.

The paradox is painful. Crores of rupees lie allocated, yet eligible students remain grounded because files move too slowly. An entire academic year can be lost to procedural inertia. This is not just a personal setback for a student; it is a collective failure to convert public money into public good.

What makes the situation more troubling is the absence of urgency. There is little evidence that the administration treats these delays as a crisis. Without fixed deadlines or consequences, postponement becomes routine. The scheme drifts, year after year, from one missed intake to the next.

A foreign scholarship should be a launchpad. Instead, this one has become a holding pen. Unless timeliness, transparency and accountability are built into its operation, it will continue to do the opposite of what it promises: denying opportunity rather than creating it. For a state that aspires to put its students on the global stage, that is an oddly self-defeating choice.

(The writer is a lawyer and president, Student Helping Hands. Views personal.)