Giving Month | NLSIU’s Commitment to Student Financial Aid
February 21, 2022
Giving Month is an initiative to provide the alumni community updates on key initiatives at NLSIU, and invite their support in jointly achieving the University’s development goals.
Each week of February will delve deeper into a separate focus area for the University’s development. This week’s focus is Student Financial Aid. To contribute to these initiatives at NLSIU, please click here.
NLSIU aims to ensure that students from diverse social, linguistic and economic backgrounds from across India benefit from its rigorous and transformative education. To that extent, the University, as a part of its inclusion policy, is dedicated to offering financial and academic support programmes to its students. NLSIU is committed to supporting every student admitted to its programmes in continuing their education irrespective of their financial background and constraints.
The University has simplified the process for donors to identify opportunities to support and has enhanced transparency in the process. We have also streamlined donor engagement with clear and simple processes, including digitally signed contracts, digital platforms for fund transfers, and annual fund utilisation reports and updates from scholarship beneficiaries. These developments have also made batch scholarships easier to coordinate and execute.
In 2021-22, NLSIU disbursed financial aid of approximately Rs 75 lakhs to 40 students across its B.A., LL.B (Hons.), LL.M, MPP and Ph.D programmes. This is, notably, the largest financial aid disbursal in the University’s history. Students received support through one or more of the following: tuition aid, residence aid, stipend and loan interest support.
The annual fees for all our full-time residential programmes is approximately Rs. 3 lakhs per student (this covers tuition, residence and related student expenses). The average family income for financial aid recipients was below Rs 3 lakhs per annum, with over 50% of recipients receiving 100% tuition aid or more.
Named Alumni Scholarships
In 2021, a number of alumni instituted named scholarships, including:
- Col. Prakash Manik Bhat Memorial Scholarship instituted by Aditya Vikram Bhat, NLS ‘LLB 2003
- Ajoy Halder THB Scholarship instituted by the class of 2004
- Class of 1995 support to Dr Menon PhD Scholarship (2021-2024)
In 2021 alone, by way of named scholarships, alumni made annual commitments of Rs 15 lakhs per annum to be disbursed over the next 3-5 years. Additionally, alumni contributed Rs 15.7 lakhs during the University’s financial aid drive in July-August 2021, which was the first time NLSIU ran a systematic fundraising campaign. “The NLS community thrives on its collective ability to turn adversity into opportunity and this annual financial aid drive is another opportunity for us to demonstrate the special character of this community,” Vice Chancellor Dr. Sudhir Krishnaswamy expressed.
With a larger and more diverse student body coming in to commence their studies in AY 2022-23, NLSIU estimates disbursing Rs 90 lakhs in financial aid next year. Alumni are best placed to understand the significance of supporting deserving students to access quality education, since they have witnessed the long-term benefits of a transformative NLSIU education. Alumni who received financial support during their own education play a key role in paying it forward and supporting deserving students at NLSIU.
During Giving Month, the University is looking to raise Rs 15 lakhs in student financial aid for AY 2022-23 – Rs 9 lakhs towards the LLB programmes and Rs 3 lakhs each towards the LLM and MPP programmes.
To contribute and read more updates on NLSIU’s student financial aid initiatives, please click here.
To read other ‘Alumni Giving Month’ features, please click here.