Buddy4Study witnesses rise in companies offering women’s scholarships; provided1800+ scholarships to women applicants

New Delhi: Buddy4Study, India’s largest scholarship platform that connects scholarship and education loan providers with seekers, has implemented over 15 scholarship programs in FY20 which are either specific to women or have a 50% quota reserved for them across education levels. The company receives applications for these scholarships from across Indian metros, tier 2 cities, small towns and villages; and has witnessed a significant rise in women applicants over the past year.

Buddy4Study supports over 1.5 million students per month by connecting them with the right scholarships via end-to-end application support. The company has a cutting-edge AI-driven scholarship search engine to ensure that the results are as accurate as possible. Moreover, it is the only platform in India which gives students access to curated scholarship information from across the globe. As part of its efforts towards making quality education accessible for all, Buddy4Study has consistently worked towards facilitating an increasing number of scholarships for women.

So far, the company has provided 1800+ scholarships for women through its partnerships with corporates across the country. The largest number of scholarships were provided under Santoor Women’s Scholarship (Graduation), HP Udaan Scholarship Program (10+2/ITI/Diploma/Graduation) and Jyoti Kalash Scholarship (Secondary Education, i.e. class 11 and 12). Other scholarships facilitated by the platform include Technip India Scholarship Program, Rolls Royce Unnati Scholarship for Women Engineers, Fair and Lovely Career Foundation Scholarship, and L’Oréal India for Young Women in Science Scholarships, amongst others.

A large number of applications are from cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. However, the states from which the platform receives the highest number of applications are Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, to name a few. For those places where internet penetration is still low, Buddy4Study’s on-ground team conducts application boot camps, providing students with a seamless process for availing the various scholarship opportunities.

Speaking on the demand, Ankur Dhawan, COO, Buddy4Study, said “We have seen a massive increase in the number of women who are applying for scholarships in the country across educational levels. We have ensured that we meet the demand through our various partnerships, with many women-specific scholarship programmes. These are for secondary education, graduation and diplomas, as well other higher education programmes. Moreover, for the other types of scholarships, we ensure that there is gender parity in the list of scholars. Thus, women scholars comprise more than 50 per cent of our overall scholar list.”

Buddy4Study has a growing user base of 25 lakh students. Since inception, the platform has successfully facilitated over 80,000 scholarships worth INR 90 crores to applicants. The majority of the company’s scholarship programs implemented for its corporate partners are India-specific. However, it has expanded its reach to Nepal and Myanmar and is now working towards growing its global footprint with a number of international partnerships.