What is the HTRA & NHTRA scheme in IIT Madras?

IIT Madras offers a PhD program under various categories and among them comes the HTRA & NHTRA scheme. The HTRA stands for Half-Time Research Assistantship whereas the NHTRA does not support any assistantship to the PhD/ MS aspirants. Through the HTRA scheme, candidates can avail monthly stipend during the course period. Under this scheme, the research scholars will have to a Teaching Assistantship for 8 hours per week. However, the candidates who do not meet the HTRA eligibility criteria will be treated under the project NHTRA category. The details related to the HTRA and NHTRA at IIT Madras are explained below:

HTRA- The research scholars with institute fellowship or any other national fellowship will be considered admitted under the HTRA category. Also, candidates must have valid GATE or NET scores to be eligible for the HTRA scheme offered at IIT Madras. Also, students who get more than 8.0 CGPA in M.Sc. in Science Departments of IIT Madras can get the sanction of HTRA subjected to the clearance of MHRD. Candidates with an MBA degree must have either a UGC/CSIR NET JRF or Lecturership or a GATE score for admission to the IIT Madras MS/ PhD Management with HTRA. 

NHTRA- Candidates can also be considered for admission to the IIT Madras PhD/ MS program without assistantship (NHTRA) under the full-time regular category. The eligibility criteria are the same as the HTRA candidates. However, such candidates will have to enclose a letter stating that they may be allowed admission without assistantship under the NHTRA category. Candidates willing to take admission under the NHTRA scheme for PhD/ MS in Management Studies must have 5 or 3 years of managerial experience in the place of national-level tests like JMET/CAT/XAT/MAT/ATMA/GATE/ UGC or CSIR NET JRF.