एससी छात्रों के लिए टॉप क्लास एजुकेशन स्कॉलरशिप 2026-27: IIT, IIM और NLU में पूरी फीस, अंतिम तिथि 31 अक्टूबर

Who can apply

- You belong to a Scheduled Caste
- Total annual family income from all sources is up to ₹8 lakh
- You have secured admission, on the institution's own general selection criteria, to a full-time course in an institution notified under this scheme
- You are in the FIRST year of that course. The guidelines are explicit: fresh scholarships are awarded only to first-year students, and students of the 2nd, 3rd or 4th year are not eligible for a fresh award

Which institutions count

All IIMs, IITs, IIITs, AIIMSs, NITs, NIFTs, NIDs, IHMs and NLUs, and other Central Government institutions, are eligible to be included once they apply and are recommended. An institution outside those categories has to be either NAAC A++ or A+ accredited, or in the top 100 of the NIRF rankings, or an Institution of National Importance.

The operative point for you: the scheme runs only in institutions the Ministry has actually notified, and slots are allotted institution by institution. Ask your institute's scholarship or SC/ST cell whether it is notified under the scheme and how many slots it has for your course, before you count on this.

What you get

- Full tuition fee and non-refundable charges, with a ceiling of ₹2 lakh a year per student at private-sector institutions
- An academic allowance of ₹86,000 in the first year of study and ₹41,000 in every year after that, for living expenses, books and stationery, and a computer or laptop with accessories

The academic allowance is paid as a lump sum, without asking you for bills or vouchers. Money goes directly to you by DBT, and you are expected to pay the institute within a month of receiving it.

The part that decides whether you actually get it

Eligibility is not the award. Each notified institution gets a fixed number of slots. If more eligible SC students are admitted than there are slots, the scholarship goes to the top students on the inter-se merit list for that course — and if two students tie for the last slot, the one with the lower family income gets it. Everyone else from the SC category is then eligible for the ordinary Post-Matric Scholarship instead, which is a different scheme on the same portal.

The published guidelines cap the scheme at 21,500 scholarships for the period 2021-22 to 2025-26, with roughly 1,900 fresh awards in the last year they list. The portal is taking 2026-27 applications now; the current year's slot allocation and the current notified-institution list are issued by the Ministry, so treat those figures as the shape of the scheme, not as this year's guarantee.

Other conditions worth knowing

- 30% of the slots at each institution are reserved for eligible SC girl students, on their own inter-se merit
- Not more than two children of the same family can hold this scholarship
- Once awarded, it continues till the end of your course, subject to satisfactory performance. It stops if you fail to be promoted, and resumes on its own once you are promoted
- If you change your institute after being selected, the scholarship is discontinued and you cannot get it again under this scheme

Documents to keep ready

- Caste certificate
- Income certificate. For self-employed parents it must come from a revenue officer not below the rank of Tehsildar; salaried parents get it from the employer, plus a consolidated certificate from the revenue officer covering any other income
- Proof of admission and your admission rank in the entrance examination
- Fee details from the institute
- Aadhaar seeded with your bank account, and your bank details

How to apply

Apply on the National Scholarship Portal at scholarships.gov.in. Finish your One Time Registration first if you have not already, then submit under the Top Class Education scheme for SC students and upload your income certificate, caste certificate, bank details, admission rank and fee details.

Your institution then verifies everything on the portal — the Ministry treats the institute's call on caste, income and rank as final, which means an unverified application simply does not exist. Submit early and tell your scholarship cell you have applied.

Dates checked on 4 August 2026. Deadlines in India move without notice, so confirm on the official portal linked above before you apply.