The undergraduate scholarship programme currently implemented by the Ministry of Education is mainly categorized into three categories; RGOB Scholarships, GOI Scholarships and Ad-hoc scholarships based on the funding source.
RGoB Scholarships: These are scholarships under the Royal Government of Bhutan funding implemented both in India and other third countries. The programme includes full scholarship to pursue higher studies in technical and professional fields. The scholarships under this category include scholarships to third countries, Queen’s Endowment for Cultural Studies, Assistance to Privately Enrolled Medical Students (APEMS) and the scholarships to Royal Thimphu College.
Ex-Country Scholarships: These are scholarships under the Royal Government of Bhutan funding implemented in the third countries. The programme includes full scholarship to pursue higher studies in courses like medicine, engineering, education and humanities.
Queen’s Endowment for Cultural Studies (QECS): The Queen’s Endowment for Cultural Studies is a special scholarship of the Royal Government of Bhutan instituted in 2011 to celebrate the Royal Wedding. The scholarship is implemented in India in cultural studies such as Fine Arts, Ayurvedic/Herbal Medicines, Pali, Music and Sanskrit. Annually 15 slots are offered under this category.
Assistance to Privately Enrolled Medical Students (APEMS): Assistance to Privately Enrolled Medical Students (APEMS) is a medical scholarship grant to private medical students initiated in 2009. Annually 15 slots are offered under this scheme for medicine with a maximum of Nu. 300,000. 00 (Ngultrum three hundred thousand) per student per annum annually as the medical scholarship grant towards the tuition cost.
Scholarship to RTC: As per the directives of the government, annually 30 slots are implemented at RTC on government scholarships since 2011. The programme includes full scholarships to pursue various courses that are offered at RTC.
GoI Scholarships: These are scholarships funded by the Government of India under Project Tied Assistance (PTA) of the Government of India to Bhutan. The programme is implemented in India as per the courses determined by the Royal Government of Bhutan. The program includes full scholarships to pursue higher studies in professional and generic fields.
Ad-hoc scholarships: These are unplanned ad-hoc offers, mainly bilateral and institutional scholarship offers. Bilateral scholarships offers are those that are made by various countries/governments based on the goodwill and diplomatic relations. Institutional scholarships are offers made by various institutes/colleges/universities based on the institutional linkages and tie ups in place.