Assam post-matric scholarship: 30 September and 6 October

Assam runs three post-matric scholarships on the National Scholarship Portal, one each for SC, ST and OBC/EBC/DNT students, and they are three different schemes with three different rulebooks. They pay different amounts, and two of them close a week before the third. The single most useful thing on this page is the list of dates below.

Your last date, by category

• SC students — 30 September 2026. The portal shows this row open from 1 June 2026
• OBC, EBC and DNT students — 30 September 2026. Open from 1 June 2026
• ST students — 6 October 2026. Open from 6 July 2026

About the date on the card. The card at the top of this page carries 30 September, because that is the first of the three to close. If you are an ST student you have until 6 October. Use the list above, not the card.

Who can apply, in all three

• You are permanently settled in Assam, and you belong to the category you are applying under, as notified for the state
• You have passed Class 10, Higher Secondary or a higher examination of a recognised university or board of secondary education
• You are studying a recognised post-matriculation course — Class 11 or 12, ITI, a polytechnic diploma, a degree, a postgraduate degree, MPhil or PhD
• Your family income from all sources is not more than ₹2.5 lakh a year
• You are not receiving any other scholarship
• Your institution has an AISHE or UDISE code. Without it the institution cannot verify you on the portal

How the income limit is counted

The ST guidelines set out the arithmetic, and it is worth knowing because families get this wrong. Where both father and mother work, their incomes are added together. If any other member of the family earns — a brother, a sister, anyone else — their income is not counted. If only one parent is alive, only that parent's income is taken. And for an orphan supported by a guardian, the income criterion does not apply at all. Income means gross income from all sources, without the exemptions and deductions the Income Tax Act allows. The Scheduled Caste guidelines put the test on the parents' or guardians' income during the last financial year.

You need an income certificate only once, when you are admitted. You do not need a fresh one to renew in a later year of the same course.

What the ST scheme pays

Your compulsory non-refundable fees, at the rate fixed by the state's fee fixation committee, plus a monthly stipend. In a private institute the Government of India's share of the fees is capped at ₹2.50 lakh a year for engineering, ₹6.00 lakh for MBBS, MS or MD, and ₹1.00 lakh for other courses; the state is free to pay more. The stipend:

• Group I — professional degrees, postgraduate degrees, MPhil and PhD in professional streams: ₹1,200 a month in a hostel, ₹550 as a day scholar
• Group II — non-professional degrees such as BA, BSc, BCom, MA, MSc, MCom, and MPhil or PhD in those subjects: ₹820 in a hostel, ₹530 as a day scholar
• Group III — vocational courses, ITI and three-year polytechnic diplomas: ₹570 in a hostel, ₹300 as a day scholar
• Group IV — Class 11 and 12 and other post-matric non-degree courses: ₹380 in a hostel, ₹230 as a day scholar
• Disability — ₹800 a month more for a hosteller and ₹600 for a day scholar, certified by the state's medical authority, and it covers students cured of leprosy and students with sickle cell anaemia or thalassemia

What the SC scheme pays

This is the centrally sponsored Post-Matric Scholarship for Scheduled Caste students, and the rulebook is the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment's, revised in March 2021. It pays your compulsory non-refundable fees including tuition, as fixed by the state government's fee fixation committee, plus a yearly academic allowance. The allowance is paid at a hosteller rate and a day-scholar rate, and these rates apply from the year 2021-22:

• Group 1 — degree and postgraduate professional courses: ₹13,500 a year in a hostel, ₹7,000 as a day scholar
• Group 2 — other professional courses leading to a degree, diploma or certificate: ₹9,500 in a hostel, ₹6,500 as a day scholar
• Group 3 — graduate and postgraduate courses not covered above: ₹6,000 in a hostel, ₹3,000 as a day scholar
• Group 4 — all post-matriculation non-degree courses: ₹4,000 in a hostel, ₹2,500 as a day scholar
• Disability — Divyang students get ten percent extra allowance

The academic allowance is linked to the Consumer Price Index for industrial workers and is revised each April.

What the OBC, EBC and DNT scheme pays

This one is written differently: it names an academic allowance and a tuition fee component, and gives you the total.

• Group 1 — degree and postgraduate professional courses: ₹10,000 academic allowance plus ₹10,000 tuition fee, ₹20,000 a year in total
• Group 2 — other professional courses leading to a degree, diploma or certificate: ₹8,000 plus ₹5,000, ₹13,000 in total
• Group 3 — graduate and postgraduate courses not covered above: ₹6,000 plus ₹2,000, ₹8,000 in total
• Group 4 — all post-matriculation non-degree courses: ₹5,000 academic allowance and no tuition fee component, ₹5,000 in total

The state may top up the academic allowance from its own funds. Scholarships under this scheme are for studies in India only, and are awarded by the state where you are permanently settled.

The Freeship Card, which is the part most students miss

All three schemes entitle you to take admission without paying tuition and hostel fees up front. The state issues a Freeship Card through the scholarship portal, and an institution covered by the scheme has to admit you on it without insisting on pre-payment; you pay from the scholarship when it is released. If a college demands the fee in advance from a student holding a Freeship Card, that is the document to point at.

Two ways students lose the money

• A second course at the same level is not funded. The Scheduled Caste guidelines give the examples plainly: a BCom after a BA, or an MA in one subject after an MA in another, is not eligible
• Correspondence and online students get no academic allowance. The tuition fee component is still paid to them under the OBC scheme, but the allowance is not. Students taking CA, ICWA, CS or ICFA are treated as day scholars for the allowance

Documents

• Aadhaar, linked to a bank account in your own name
• Caste certificate for the category you are applying under, from the competent authority
• Income certificate from the competent authority, taken once at admission
• Certificates and marksheets for every examination you have passed
• Admission and fee receipts
• Bank passbook
• Disability certificate, if you are claiming the disability allowance

Where to apply

On the National Scholarship Portal, scholarships.gov.in. Choose State Schemes, then Assam, then your own category's row — "Post Matric Scholarship For SC Students - Assam", "Post Matric Scholarship To ST Students - Assam" or "Post Matric Scholarship To OBC Students - Assam". Complete your One-Time Registration first if you have not already, and leave your institution time to verify you after you submit.

Checked on 23 September 2026 against the National Scholarship Portal's State Schemes board for Assam and the three scheme guidelines the portal attaches to those rows. The Scheduled Caste rulebook is the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment's own, revised March 2021, and the government publishes it only as a scan — the copy on the ministry's site and the copy on the portal are the same file. Deadlines move without notice, so confirm on the official portal before you apply.