The Higher Education Commission HEC has decided to award 6,000 scholarships to needy students from different parts of Pakistan under the HEC merit and need-based scholarship programme during the next three years. This was disclosed during a meeting held here with Dr Nasser Ali Khan, Member (O&P) Higher Education Commission, says a news release on Wednesday.
These scholarships would be awarded to talented but financially constrained students especially those from rural areas so as to ensure greater equity in enrollment at different public sector Higher Education Institutions throughout the country.
The need-based scholarships are focused on providing opportunities for access to higher education especially to under privileged students belonging to remote and far flung areas of the country who despite possessing academic merit, are unable to finance their education.
Under this new initiative, special emphasis is given to the students belonging to Balochistan, FATA, interior Sindh and Southern Punjab to support higher education of maximum number of academically qualified needy students from the poor segments of the country. These scholarships would be awarded through a transparent and well defined mechanism.
The meeting was also informed that so far 1000 scholarships have been awarded.
Speaking on the occasion, the HEC member said the HEC is committed to provision of equitable access to higher education especially to marginalized segments of the society. The award of need-based scholarships will be greatly helpful in this regard, he added. He also underlined the importance of role of educated youth in the development of the country.
The meeting was attended by Prof.
Dr Riaz Hussain Qureshi, Adviser HRD HEC Islamabad, Prof Dr Junaid Zaidi, rector, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Prof Dr Mansoor Akber Kundi, Vice Chancellor Gomal University D.I Khan, Prof Dr Samina Amin Qadir Vice Chancellor Fatima Jinnah University Rawalpindi, Prof Dr Khalid Khan former Vice Chancellor PMAS Arid University and Prof Jamila Qazi Registrar SBKWU Quetta while IBA Director Sukkur attended the meeting through video conferencing.
6,000 students to get HEC scholarships
