PhD stipend in India is not like PhD salary after doing PhD but stipend means a scholarship based money that is given monthly or anually to PhD pursuing students. Here is my detailed study about stipend for phd in India.

The average PhD stipend in India is 15000-35000 INR per month. Only full-time PhD students are eligible to get a phd scholarship. All part-time PhD students will not get stipend because they have their own jobs and they don’t contribute to the univesity. Full-time PhD students are paid regulary every 30 days for the contribution and research they do in a particular university. In many universities, PhD students will submit a monthly research report that needs to get approved for getting a PhD stipend.

Another interesting thing is that the allocation of stipend depends on the branch and subject. Those students who study PhD in humanities will get lower stipend when compared to the stipend for PhD in engineering subjects. Stipend also depends on which university one studies his/her PhD. For instance, If a PhD student is from NIT or IIT, they get a good and handsome stipend.

But it is not with any PhD from private universities. There is no universal rule from UGC or AICTE about stipend giving and allocation. PhD stipend in India is given as per the norms of the university for different branches. There will be also a PhD stipend hike for senior PhD scholars ( who finishes at least 2 years of PhD). Having given the information about PhD stipend, I have asked some PhD students about their stipend in different universities. Here are my findings:

How much stipend for PhD?

The given stipend list above is taken from different PhD students studying in 2021-22. But for more updates of the current stipend, regularly visit for the table updates. PhD stipends can be modified at any time without any priority. So it is always better to check with the university about the current stipend limits for different subjects.

Here are the different PhD students giving their opinions:

Usually after getting stipend, PhD students never use it for satisfying their wants. They spend it within no time in India. Usually in India, Stipend is very less for a PhD student to run his family. It is very difficult for a married person to study PhD full time mode. Especially, I want to bring to notice about students belonging to humanities background. They get very less PhD stipend. It is just 18k per month. Most of this sitpend again undergoes some cuts like for taking leave or for not giving thumb or for some donations within the universities.

The best thing that a PhD student can do with very lower stipend is to do a part-time job as online educator or freelancing his skills. This is the best way to cover for unexpected expenses that one may incur during PhD.

Another opportunity is to avail bank loan besides regular sitpend. Usually banks provide educational loan or personal loan upto 2 lacs. Just pay in in installment for the rest of PhD. This loan will help you a lot to cover many expenses that belong to PHD itself.

For example, during the final year of PhD, you have to pay thesis submission fee of upto 50000 INR. Some expenses for binding of PhD thesis will also take place. So your PhD stipend will not cover these high expenses. Unfortunately PhD sitpend in Indiac covers only living expenses to minimum.