Scholarship for UP Board Intermediate Pass Students (PM-USP Central Sector Scheme of Scholarship)

What is the scholarship for UP Board inter pass students?

The scholarship commonly called the UP Inter Pass Students Scholarship is Uttar Pradesh's share of the PM-USP Central Sector Scheme of Scholarship for College and University Students (CSSS), awarded by the Ministry of Education on the basis of Class 12 board results. The Board of High School and Intermediate Education, Prayagraj. The UP Board, is the examination board whose results decide who qualifies, and the state's higher education department acts as the State Nodal Agency that verifies applications.

According to the scheme guidelines, the object is "to provide financial assistance to meritorious students from poor families to meet a part of their day-to-day expenses while pursuing higher studies". A maximum of 82,000 fresh scholarships per annum are awarded nationally for graduate and postgraduate degrees and for professional courses such as medicine and engineering.

Two features of the design matter to a UP Board student. First, the slots are distributed among state education boards on the basis of each state's population in the 18-25 age group, after separating the CBSE and ICSE share. Uttar Pradesh, with the largest school-going population in the country, receives a correspondingly large block of slots. Second, the number allotted to a state board is distributed among Humanities, Science and Commerce pass-outs in the ratio 3:3:1, so a Commerce student competes in a much smaller pool than the raw stream size would suggest.

This is not the same as the state's own post-matric scholarship on scholarship.up.gov.in. It is a separate, merit-based central scholarship applied for on the National Scholarship Portal, and the guidelines specifically bar a student from holding both this and another merit or state scholarship.

Who is eligible for this scholarship?

You can apply if:

• You are above the 80th percentile of successful candidates in your stream in the UP Board Class 12 examination. Everything below that percentile is out, whatever the absolute marks.
• You are pursuing a regular degree course at a college or institution recognised by AICTE or the relevant regulatory body, with a valid AISHE code.
• Your gross parental or family income is up to Rs 4.5 lakh per annum.
• You are not availing any other merit scholarship, state-run scholarship, fee waiver or reimbursement scheme.
• You apply online on the National Scholarship Portal.

You cannot apply, or are not eligible, if:

• You are studying in correspondence or distance mode.
• You are pursuing a diploma course rather than a degree.
• You are already receiving another merit or state scholarship or a fee waiver.
• Your family income is above Rs 4.5 lakh a year.
• You fall below the 80th percentile of successful candidates in your stream.
• Your institution has no valid AISHE code.
• You send an application directly to the Ministry of Education — the guidelines state that fresh and renewal applications sent directly are not accepted.

Reservation. Central reservation policy applies to the slots: 15 per cent for SC, 7.5 per cent for ST, 27 per cent for OBC, with 5 per cent horizontal reservation for students with benchmark disability of 40 per cent or more, and 50 per cent of all scholarships earmarked for girls. Unfilled slots in one group are transferred to other categories so the annual target is used up.

What documents are required?

How to apply for the UP inter pass students scholarship

1. Open the National Scholarship Portal at scholarships.gov.in and complete One Time Registration (OTR), entering your mobile number and Aadhaar number and finishing the e-KYC step.
2. Log in with the OTR number and select PM-USP Central Sector Scheme of Scholarship for College and University Students from the list of schemes.
3. Fill in your personal, category and academic details, entering the UP Board as your Class 12 examining board along with your roll number, stream and marks.
4. Enter your current college and course, making sure the institution shown carries a valid AISHE code. You can verify the code at aishe.gov.in.
5. Upload the Class 12 mark sheet, the family income certificate, the caste certificate if you are claiming reservation, and the disability certificate if applicable.
6. Enter your own bank account number and IFSC, then click Confirm and Submit. Save the application ID.
7. Follow up with your college's Institute Nodal Officer so that the application is verified at institution level; it then goes to the State Nodal Officer for the second-level check.
8. Watch the selection list published on the NSP and track the credit through Know Your Payment on the PFMS portal.

How to renew the scholarship each year

1. Log in on scholarships.gov.in with the same OTR during the renewal window.
2. Upload the previous year's mark sheet showing at least 50 per cent marks in the annual examination.
3. Confirm attendance of at least 75 per cent, which the institution verifies.
4. Submit before the renewal cut-off. The guidelines say a student who misses the renewal deadline will not be allowed renewal for that year, though the student is not permanently debarred and can renew in a subsequent year if still eligible.

A student who changes college or institute may continue the scholarship as long as the new course and institution have a valid AISHE code.

How much is paid and for how long?

From financial year 2022-23 the rates are:

• Rs 12,000 per annum at graduation level for the first three years of college and university courses.
• Rs 20,000 per annum at postgraduate level.
• Rs 20,000 per annum in the 4th and 5th year for students on professional courses where the course runs five years or is an integrated course.
• For technical courses such as B.Tech and B.Engg, the scholarship runs to graduation level only: Rs 12,000 a year for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd year and Rs 20,000 in the 4th year.

Payment is made by Direct Benefit Transfer into the student's own savings account. The guidelines are explicit that the account must be opened especially in the student's name, and that payment status can be tracked on the PFMS portal under "Know Your Payment" using the Aadhaar number, the bank account number or the NSP application ID.

Why applications get rejected

• Percentile miss. Falling below the 80th percentile of successful candidates in your stream is the commonest reason and cannot be appealed.
• Holding another scholarship, including a state scholarship or a fee waiver, which the portal detects on cross-check.
• Income certificate above Rs 4.5 lakh, or an income certificate that is not from a competent authority.
• Institution has no valid AISHE code, so the college cannot be selected.
• Distance-mode or diploma enrolment.
• Institution or state verification not done within the NSP timeline. Both the Institute Nodal Officer and the State Nodal Officer must be a regular employee and must complete Aadhaar-based authentication before verifying.
• Bank account not in the student's name or not Aadhaar-seeded.

Key dates

The National Scholarship Portal, not the UP Board, publishes the opening and closing timelines for fresh and renewal applications each academic year, and the guidelines say the latest timeline is made available on NSP. Selection lists are also generated and displayed on NSP. Because the dates move every year and often get extended, treat the timelines banner on scholarships.gov.in as the only reliable source and start the OTR step early, e-KYC failures are the usual cause of a missed deadline.

Where to complain

Grievances go to the Central government's public grievance portal at pgportal.gov.in, or to the nodal officer whose email is published under the Services tab of the NSP. For direct contact, the guidelines list the National Scholarship Division, Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education, West Block 1, R. K. Puram, New Delhi 110066, telephone 011-20862360, email ns1-scholarship@gov.in.

For anything relating to the UP Board mark sheet, stream or roll number, contact the Board of High School and Intermediate Education, Prayagraj. Applying is free at every stage.

How to check your application status

The National Scholarship Portal shows two separate things: whether your application has moved past verification, and whether money has actually been credited. Checking only one of the two is the usual reason a student thinks "nothing happened" when the other stage was actually fine.

To check the verification stage:

1. Log in to scholarships.gov.in with your OTR registration number and password (not a fresh registration).
2. Open the "Application Status" or "Track Application" option on your student dashboard.
3. Your application will show one of a small set of stages: submitted and pending with the Institute Nodal Officer, forwarded and pending with the State Nodal Officer, approved and sent for disbursement, or rejected with a reason code next to it.
4. If the status has sat unchanged at the institute or state stage for several weeks, the delay is almost always on that officer's side, not yours. Contact the college's scholarship cell or Institute Nodal Officer directly and ask them to log in and clear the pending verification queue; a state government helpline cannot push a college to act faster.

To check whether the amount was paid:

1. Go to the PFMS portal and open the "Know Your Payment" section.
2. Enter your Aadhaar number, bank account number, or the NSP application ID, whichever you have to hand.
3. PFMS will show whether a payment order was generated against your application and, if so, the date it was sent to your bank. A payment order shown as "sent" but not reflected in your bank account within a few working days is a bank-side or account-seeding issue, and should be raised with your branch, not with the scholarship helpline.
4. If PFMS shows no payment order at all, the application has not yet cleared the state or ministry disbursement cycle for that session; recheck the NSP application status first before assuming the payment has failed.

If the portal shows no movement at all, raise the issue through pgportal.gov.in, quoting your NSP application ID, the UP Board roll number, and the exact stage your application is stuck at. Keep the acknowledgement number from the grievance filing; it is what the National Scholarship Division asks for if you follow up by phone or email later.