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HEC shelves future scholarships
HEC shelves future scholarships: Cut in funds
| Islamabad, Nov 06: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has shelved all
its future scholarships after the government imposed major cuts on its annual
budgetary allocations, reliable sources said. In view of the
government's decision not to provide funds to the HEC, which were promised under
the cash plan for the current financial year, the HEC has stopped offering
scholarships for higher studies.
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However, knowledgeable sources said, the
existent scholarships would not be affected by this decision.
"At present
a major chunk of the money which the government is releasing to the HEC is going
to our students who are studying at various international universities and left
with no money to spend on other projects. Supporting our present scholarship
holders is HEC's prime responsibility," they said.
Under an extensive
Human Resource Development (HRD) project, the HEC had sent 6,500 scholars abroad
for higher studies, and nearly 4,000 scholars are busy on various research
projects within the country.
Considering the importance of HRD and HEC's
agreement with international universities, where Pakistani students are
currently studying, the commission had to divert Rs1.5 billion of the Rs2.555
billion released by the government for the first quarter of the current
financial year for this purpose. Therefore, the HEC is left with little funds to
support more than 250 ongoing development projects in the higher education
institutions of the country.
The financial worries of the HEC started
when the government imposed a cut of Rs2.61 billion on its developmental grant
of the fourth quarter of the last financial year. The government had only
released Rs2.555 billion against the demand of Rs4.523 billion in the first
quarter development grant of the current year.
The grant was required
under the cash plan for 284 approved projects of the HEC. Moreover, the
government has also warned the HEC with more budgetary constraints in months to
come.
Public sector universities had already started complaining scarcity
of funds to spend on their ongoing and new approved projects for the current
financial year. The HEC had also stop paying monthly stipend to university
teachers which they were getting for supervising PhD students.
"At
present, we are in a tight corner and if the same condition persists, it would
be difficult for us to continue working on most of HEC ongoing developments
projects," they said. Dawn
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RBISE to change procedure of form submission
Rawalpindi: On special directives of the Punjab chief minister, Rawalpindi Board of
Intermediate & Secondary Education (RBISE) has decided to completely change
the procedure for the submission of examination forms of SSC and HSSC Part I and
II for 2009. According to sources, a printed receipt having a diary number, a
form number and
the name of the candidate would be handed over to the
candidates at the time of receiving admission forms, aimed to make the system of
examinations transparent. The slips and model papers are also being updated on
the Board's website, aimed to facilitate the students.
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HEC launches MERC project at Punjab University
Islamabad: A project of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) titled
Microelectronic Research Centre (MERC) has started at University of the Punjab,
Lahore, says a press release.
An amount of Rs38.5 million was allocated
for this centre and the university has utilised it for the establishment of
classrooms, computer laboratory, research laboratory, electronics workshop, etc.
The centre has been established in collaboration with the Centre of
Excellence in Solid State Physics in order to modify the building and other
basic infrastructure that already exist.
Its major objective is to train
manpower in the important field of electronic devices with the help of
international collaborations.
The centre offers MPhil degree in
Microelectronic Engineering & Semiconductor Physics (MESP), which is a
unique blend of Engineering and Physics.
This is the first time in
Pakistan that such a degree related to the high-tech industry of Microelectronics is being offered that will provide an excellent opportunity to physicists and engineers to join hands for
research.
The project funding was also utilised for setting up a Local
Area Network (LAN) for research students to not only access e-literature but
also perform research modelling and simulation work.
The facilities of
MERC and CSSP have been made open to all public sector universities through
HEC's programme titled Access to Scientific Instrumentation and hundreds of
samples are being characterised for various universities of the country. The News
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| Education News | | Updated: 09 Feb, 2012 |
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