New Delhi: The scholarship was created in 2022 to honour the memory of late Prof. Obaid Siddiqui (1957-2020), veteran journalist and founder of the MA Convergent Journalism programme at Jamia Millia Islamia.
Jamia Journalism Alums, the alumni group of Jamia’s MA Convergent Journalism (MACJ) programme, has awarded the Professor Obaid Siddiqui Memorial Scholarship to six students this year, the group has announced.
The recipients of the scholarship are Nida Fatima Momin, Shoaibur Rahman, Md Naiyar Azam, Adnan Ali and Saher Hiba Khan. One recipient has preferred to remain anonymous. The scholarship is funded by voluntary contributions from the alumni and the total amount raised this year was ₹2.5 lakh.
In addition to the scholarship, alumni raised another ₹75,000 through friends to support two more students of the programme. The award money has already been disbursed to the recipients.
The scholarship was created in 2022 to honour the memory of late Professor Obaid Siddiqui (1957-2020), veteran journalist and founder of the MACJ programme at Jamia’s AJK Mass Communication Research Centre.
Shoaibur, who hails from Katihar, Bihar and is one of the recipients this year, says that the scholarship has greatly reduced the financial burden on his family.
“I initially decided to leave the course due to financial constraints. But a friend at AJK MCRC informed me about the scholarship and that it could help me pay the tuition fee. With my hopes pinned on the scholarship, I borrowed money and took admission in the programme,” said Shoaibur, who is passionate about video journalism and has done reports on issues ranging from inflation to press freedom.
“Until I received the scholarship, my family and I were very worried about how we’d repay the amount. I was overjoyed when I got to know that I have been selected,” he added.
The scholarship for this year was announced in March and the candidates were selected on the basis of information entered in the application forms and the recommendations of the panels that interviewed the candidates. The final decision was made by the Scholarship Committee, which also conducted the whole process.
Raghu Kalra, a member of the committee, said, “We extend our heartfelt congratulations to the six students who have been awarded the scholarships this year. These are all exemplary individuals who will, without a doubt, win many awards for their outstanding work in journalism and communications in the near future.”
An alumnus of the 2014 batch of MACJ, Kalra also profusely thanked the alumni of MACJ for extending support to the scholarship for the third consecutive year.
Jamia Journalism Alums is an informal group of 300+ alumni of the MACJ programme. The programme itself was founded in 2005, initially as a one-year postgraduate diploma, but converted to a two-year master’s in 2007.
It consistently ranks as one of the top journalism programmes in the country and has a highly selective cohort of 20 students. As per the MCRC website, the programme “strives to make students competent in multiple modalities of production and distribution and prepare them for a complex, convergent and fluid media environment.”
The alumni of MACJ are currently working in renowned news organisations such as The Washington Post, New York Times, BBC, DW, The Indian Express, The Times Group, Hindustan Times, India Today and Scroll amongst others.
They have also been recipients of the Ramnath Goenka Award, Statesman Award, UNFPA Laadli Award, and New India Fellowship.
