The Higher Education Commission (HEC) in its effort to augment access to higher education in far flung areas of the country has established 55 new university campuses including 31 in the rural areas.
An official of the HEC told APP that around 49 development projects, amounting to more than Rs 10 billion have been approved so far in Balochistan.
“The federal quota policy has been applied over indigenous and foreign scholarship programmes with the efforts of the HEC to enable and encourage the youth from Balochistan to avail exclusive scholarship opportunities,” the official said.
Under faculty development programs, 390 PhD scholarships have been allocated for the faculty members belonging to various higher education institutions of the province.
The faculty development programme will equip them with latest knowledge and expertise at leading universities of academically advanced countries.
The official informed that HEC had already awarded 2,000 scholarships to students of Balochistan and FATA under the project “Provision of Higher Education Opportunities for Balochistan and FATA” during the last four years.
Under the second and new phase of the project, 1500 more scholarships would be awarded to the students of Balochistan and FATA.
Besides 600 Masters degrees leading to PhD scholarships for the natives of Balochistan province have been announced under the “Aghaz-e-Haqooq-e-Balochistan Package” with a cost of Rs 3,138.692 million.
Commenting on HEC’s initiatives for Balochistan province, HEC Chairperson Dr Javaid R Laghari said that all the federal units have effective representation in the 17 member governing board of HEC and National Scholarship Management Committee.
Through the Steering Committee, which comprises all provincial secretaries of education, HEC is closely working with the provincial governments to evolve joint strategy for promotion of higher education in the country.
He informed that more than 10,000 need-based-scholarships were being awarded to the talented but financially constrained students belonging to the far flung and remote areas of the country with special emphasis on Balochistan, Interior Sindh, South Punjab and FATA.
As an outcome of a decade long useful initiatives, enrollment at the universities of Balochistan have increased from 4400 to 11300 while the number of universities has been increased from two to seven, including the first women university of Balochistan.
HEC has launched special projects for the development of basic infrastructure at higher education institutions of the province including labs, class rooms, seminars rooms, labs, transport facilities, digital libraries, video conferencing facility etc.
He stressed upon the scholars and youth of all provinces to avail all HEC opportunities and play their pivotal role for the development of their region and the country.
He reiterated HEC’s commitment towards equitable access to higher education especially to the marginalised segments of the society.
