Kalinarayan Scholarship

Kalinarayan Scholarship (KNS) a prestigious scholarship for students at the Dhaka University on completion of their Bachelor Honours courses. It was initially instituted at the Dacca (Dhaka) College by a grant of Tk 6000 made by Raja Rajendranarayan Roy of Bhawal to commemorate the name of his father, the late Raja Kalinarayan Roy. The scholarship was given out of the interest of the sum donated to that student of the college who topped the list in the BA examination and passed the MA examination from the college within a year of his passing the BA examination.

After the establishment of the university of dhaka the administration of the fund was transferred to the Vice-chancellor of the university with effect from 1 July 1921. The Regulations for the award of the scholarship were adopted by the Executive Council on 13 March 1923. The Scholarships for 1921 was awarded according to the old system to the student who secured the highest marks in BA examination of that year and the new Regulation came into force from 1922.

As per the Regulations two scholarships of Rs 20 each a month were awarded by the Academic Council on the recommendation of a committee consisting of the VC and the Deans of the Faculties of Arts and Science to the students who attained the highest proficiency in the BA and BSc examination of 1922 and 1923 from Dhaka University.

The Regulation was changed in 1925 and it was resolved that the KNS would be awarded to the student who was considered to have shown the highest proficiency among those students who obtained the Bachelors degree with Honours in each year in the Dhaka University and continued his studies at the university. The marks obtained by an Honours candidate in the subsidiary subjects were not taken into account in determining the award of the scholarship.

The Regulation was further amended in 1928. In this amendment it was stipulated that a recipient of the KNS was to stand first in First Class in his Honours subject and to obtain the highest aggregate among the Honours candidates, marks of subsidiary subjects were counted in the aggregate.

This system continued upto 1969 when a further condition was added that a KNS recipient should have to pass the Honours examination within three academic years of his first admission in to the Honours class.

In 1986 the Regulation was again amended to the effect that KNS might be awarded to a candidate even if he had obtained a General Merit Scholarship. Since 1986 the value of KNS has been raised to Tk 50/-.

In 1990 it was laid down that in those Departments/ Faculties where the Honours and subsidiary subjects have been integrated, the total marks of all subjects should be deemed to have the weight of 1500 (fifteen hundred) marks.

Since its inception the KNS has been the most coveted scholarship of Dhaka University, not for its value in financial terms, but for the honour it carried with it. [Muhammad Ansar Ali] [Ali, Muhammad Ansar Professor (retd) of History, Govt. Jagannath College, Dhaka]