UK High Commissioner to Pakistan Adam Thomson on Thursday appreciated the efforts of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) for changing the overall scenario of higher education in the country. “I must say this institution is making a real difference,” he said while speaking as a chief guest at a ceremony held to bid farewell to five Pakistani scholars selected for HEC-Cambridge Commonwealth Trust (CCT) scholarships. Acting Executive Director HEC Dr Riaz Hussain Qureshi chaired the session held at the HEC Secretariat. The successful scholars who have been awarded these prestigious scholarships leading to PhD in the disciplines of biochemistry, development economics, engineering and education are Mayida Azhar, Shan Aman Rana, Zaib Ali, Ishrat Rehman and Arooj Shafiq. These scholars will join the University of Cambridge in the session starting in October.
Thomson said, “I am proud of the level of cooperation between the HEC and the UK, primarily through the British Council, and am very aware of the HEC’s commitment to knowledge exchange at an international level. University-to-university links are an important part of the exchange of ideas. Thus today it is a great pleasure to mark further strengthening of an enduring intellectual and academic relationship between Pakistan and a UK university,” he added.
A memorandum of understanding has been signed between the HEC and Cambridge Commonwealth Trust (CCT) for these scholarships. Under the programme, five outstanding Pakistani scholars will be chosen every year to study at the prestigious university. The scholarships are applicable to all areas of knowledge except those for which clinical rate fees are charged. According to the MoU, the HEC will pay 5,000 pounds towards the tuition fee plus its standard stipend 9,000 pounds per annum while the CCT will pay the remainder of the tuition fee, the college fee and the remainder of the annual stipend to bring that up to the CCT’s annual amount. Applicants are required to secure admission letters by themselves.
