In times of despair, there are always some good samaritans to lend a helping hand to counter the situation. Sometimes these samaritans are one’s own educational institutions. Keeping all the difficulties of their students in mind, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) has decided to offer a full course fee waiver to students who have unfortunately lost their parent to COVID-19. The waiver will be in the form of a scholarship that is available to students across all courses in all of MAHE’s constituent colleges.
“In these unprecedented times, several students who have lost their parents wrote to us conveying their financial struggles. We immediately took their grievances into consideration and the management decided on a full fee waiver,” said Dr. Narayana Sabhahit, Registrar of MAHE. “In normal circumstances, MAHE has offered students support through a partial waiver. Currently, in the face of such difficult times, we have decided to extend our support through a full course fee waiver,” he added.
Students who have lost their sole-earning parent to COVID-19 are eligible for the scholarship. They can avail of the scholarship by providing the necessary documents such as the death certificate and other particulars from the hospital. The scholarship will be provided to the students throughout the entire remaining duration of their course at MAHE. There is no cut-off on the number of students that can avail of the scholarship.
Additionally, MAHE has also announced that it is offering free COVID-19 Covishield vaccination to all of its students, employees, children and dependents of employees. “The only possible way out of this pandemic is through vaccination and we believe that the earlier one gets vaccinated, the better. Hence, keeping in mind the wellbeing of our students and staff, we took the decision to offer free vaccination. We are hoping that through this measure they will be protected and hopefully re-enter the campus when it is safe to do so,” said Dr Sabhahit.
The Institute of eminence is extending this benefit across both doses. The vaccination drive will be carried out in the designated vaccination centres on campus and is being facilitated by the Directorate of Student Affairs, MAHE. Students availing of this facility are directed to register their names through the CoWIN Portal and comply with all the government guidelines.
