HEC selects 49 universities for 1,500 scholarships program
ISLAMABAD: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has selected 49 public and private sector universities out of 108 universities for the “Japanese Need-Based Scholarship” programme.
The Rs 1 billion scholarship programme will bear the educational expenses of students studying at the country’s leading higher education institutes and will also provide them with monthly stipends. HEC on Wednesday sent letters to the 37 public sector and 12 private sector universities that have been selected for the promgramme, and asked them to nominate candidates for the scholarship, an official told Daily Times.
The programme will follow the criteria of “merit and need” and would select 1,500 students who cannot bear their expenses, the official said. These scholarships will be offered at bachelors and masters level in the fields of agriculture, natural sciences, business administration, IT, telecommunication, engineering, social sciences and basic sciences, the official said.
The official said that private sector universities that fall in the HEC’s “A” criteria will be offered scholarships in business administration, IT and telecommunication disciplines only, while public sector universities could nominate students studying in all the six disciplines.
Under the programme, 70 scholarships would be offered to undergraduate students in agriculture, 70 in business administration and 130 in graduate level in natural sciences, while 130 scholarships would be provided to public sector universities. He said that 50 scholarships would be offered to private sector universities for BS, BBA, Economics and Accounting at undergraduate level and another 50 at graduate level in business administration.
For IT and telecommunication sectors, 50 scholarships each will be offered to public and private sector universities in graduate and undergraduate level, while 200 scholarships will be offered in engineering at undergraduate level, 250 scholarships for social sciences at graduate level, 225 scholarships for basic and natural sciences at graduate level and 125 scholarships at graduate level in various other disciplines in public sector universities.
The scholarships will cover the full tuition fee (four years in case of undergraduate and two years for graduate level programmes), while a monthly stipend of Rs 3,500 will be paid to the student, the official said.
The official said that a management committee would be formed, consisting of officials of the HEC, vice-chancellors and faculty members of universities and community members from the areas, to run the programme. He said that the HEC would then send application forms to the universities and would advertise the programme in the media. The commission will also hold workshops in provincial capitals, Multan and Sukhar to inform the students about the programme, he said.
The candidates recommended by the universities would be evaluated by the management committee, which would also ensure that the scholarships are used properly, the official said. The official said that students studying in the undergraduate and graduate programmes in the selected universities would be eligible to apply for the scholarships. The official said that HEC had also decided that students studying in their second semesters would be included in the programme, as the programme would be delayed due to various bureaucratic procedures.
By Irfan Ghauri>>www.dailytimes.com.pk
