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HEC sends 1,039 scholars abroad for higher education
Islamabad, Jan 18, 2008: The Higher Education Commission
(HEC) has so far sent 1,039 scholars abroad, while nine more are being sent to
the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand (AIT) on MS and PhD scholarships
next week, said HEC Executive Director Prof Dr Sohail Naqvi in a press statement
on Thursday.
Naqvi said Pakistan was the founding member of AIT and
signed an MoU in 2003 to provide higher education opportunities to Pakistani
professionals in order to help in the development of human resources necessary
for achieving long term sustainability in Pakistan.
Naqvi gave these
scholars their final award letter, air tickets and two months advanced stipends
in a ceremony held on Thursday. The nine candidates include Muhammad Haris Aziz
Qureshi (Engineering Technology), Muhammad Shazad Sarfraz (Physical Sciences),
Rab Nawaz (Agriculture and Veterinary Sciences), Asmatullah (Agriculture
Economy), Ghaffar Ali (Economics), Muhammad Haroon Siddiqui (City and Regional
Planning/Town Planning), Abid Hussain (Economics), Abdul Wahid (Economics) and
Tanzeem Akbar (Biological and Medical Sciences).
AIT is Asia's pioneer
institution to help this region meet the growing need for advanced education in
engineering, science and technology. Naqvi informed the participants that as now
total 16 Masters and four PhDs had completed their programme and returned to
Pakistan.
These scholars are serving in their parent public sector
organisations. Currently 10 PhDs and 35 Masters candidates are studying at AIT
and 29 others will join them by August.
He also said about 20,000
applications were received against different overseas scholarship programmes out
of which 2,408 candidates were selected and were awarded scholarships.
About 70 percent of the selected scholars left during 2006-07 while the
remaining 30 percent went after June 2007 after completing their language
programme and related formalities. Daily Times
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