«THE IMPACT OF STUDENT-LED SOCIAL INITIATIVES ON MERIT SCHOLARSHIP AND GRANT ACQUISITION IN HIGHER EDUCATION: A HOLISTIC EVALUATION MODEL»
Keywords:
Student social initiatives, higher education finance, merit-based grants, holistic assessment, civic engagement, extra-curricular portfolio, HEMIS portal, leadership development.Abstract
This study investigates the structural shift in higher education funding
selection processes from purely metric-based evaluations to holistic assessment
systems. Specifically, it examines how student involvement in social initiatives, civic
projects, and extracurricular leadership directly influences success rates in securing
institutional grants, merit scholarships, and state-funded education subsidies.
Analyzing modern educational management systems (such as university HEMIS
portals and rubric-based grant selection frameworks), this paper conceptualizes a
multi-dimensional model illustrating how non-academic achievements serve as
primary differentiators among academically equivalent applicants. The research
categorizes social initiatives into distinct functional domains, evaluates their respective
impact weights in scoring rubrics, and explores the cognitive and non-cognitive
competencies demonstrated through civic engagement. Ultimately, the paper provides
a strategic framework for applicants to systematically document, quantify, and align
their social activity portfolios with scholarship evaluation criteria.
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