Fair and open admissions

SDG 10.2Fair and open admissions

UPES admits students on merit and uses targeted scholarships to widen access for women, low-income students and young people from Uttarakhand.

Scholarships that widen access

• Shakti, for women. Launched in 2020 to take young women "from classroom to boardroom", Shakti gives girl students a 20% scholarship; more than 1,300 benefited in a single year, with applicants from Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Haryana, Maharashtra and Jharkhand. For 2022–23, more than half of about 2,000 merit scholarships were reserved for girls.
• Jyoti, for low-income students. A 100% waiver of tuition and academic fees for 51 meritorious students a year from families earning up to ₹8 lakh.
• Uttarakhand domicile. A quarter of seats are reserved for students with Uttarakhand domicile, each with a 25% tuition scholarship every semester, so local students can study close to home.
• Talented students from remote areas. Project Abhilasha brings meritorious students from marginalised parts of Uttarakhand to campus for a month-long residential coaching camp for engineering entrance exams, and Project Protsaahan funds the full degree of meritorious students from the Purkal Youth Development Society.

Planned outreach to under-represented groups

Each of these schemes is a planned action to bring in students from groups that are under-represented in higher education: women through Shakti and merit scholarships reserved for girls, students from low-income families through Jyoti and Protsaahan, young people from Uttarakhand's remote areas through the domicile reservation and Project Abhilasha, and students with disabilities through accessible admissions under the Policy on Inclusion of Students with Disability. On the staff side, UPES's Principles of Engagement commit it to equal-opportunity hiring, and the Shakti leadership programme develops women employees for senior roles.

Measuring progress

UPES reports the scholarships it awards each year, including those for women, to check how far its schemes reach under-represented students.