HEC to send 10,000 Pakistani scholars to US for PhD studies

Islamabad:  Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan will send 10,000 scholars to the United States (US) for PhD Studies from next year in the specific fields of Food Security and Agriculture, Energy, Water, Climate Change, Medical and Allied Health Sciences, Advanced Digital Technology and others.

The Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms Ahsan Iqbal made this announcement while explaining the Hallway of Pakistan-US Knowledge during a video conference session along with the vice chancellors of varsities from all over the country.

The chairperson of Higher education commission Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed and Executive Director of higher education commission Dr. Arshad Ali were also present on the event.

Read More: China awarded scholarships to 61 students of Sindh universities

The Pakistan-US Corridor was intellectualized last year in June as a result of Pakistan-US Education, Science and Technology working group under the 2-sided planned dialogue. The Government of Pakistan envisions improving the enrolment in education zone to almost 5 million by 2025 and outreach of HEIs at district level.

At this point, the universities are facing the shortage of 30,000 PhD qualified faculty members.

The minister while addressing moreover said that 10,000 PhDs educated in the best universities of US will give exceptional results.

“The government is dedicated to increase access to higher education and for that reason sub-campuses as well as virtual campuses are being established at district level so as to allow the brilliant aspirants to gain higher education at their doorstep.”

He further added that the horizontal expansion will not be attained at the cost of quality. He said that recommended service in universities will be established to look out for talent, prospective students and be coached how to get admission abroad, prepare research profile and counseled for admission.

Ahsan Iqbal acknowledged the main responsibilities of a varsity including instruction, quality research, creating knowledge, heartening innovation and industry relation for contribution to the economy and university community relationship.

Read More: Higher Education Department announces 50K more scholarships for students in 2017

Moreover, he shared the recently setup Technology Innovation Fund which will per the new PhDs to carryout research as well as win a competitive grant to bring about economic impact.

Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed gave the summary of efforts of Higher Education Commission for developing human resource and offering the state-of-the-art facilities to the higher education institutions. He admired the government for increase in higher education subsidy during the last three years.

He expected that US Pakistan Knowledge Hallway will definitely assist in building the knowledge economy.